https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=63087
--- Comment #42 from ady <adylo811...@gmail.com> --- I'd like to present a simplified case demonstrating the need for this feature. A colleague has maintained a (Calc's) workbook file with multiple worksheets for some time. He retired (and we have no contact anymore) and we are now in charge of it. (The case could also be that we receive some spreadsheet workbook file from some third party.) The main point is that we don't know the original logic of its workflow. After some time, circumstances change and we need to modify it. (The case could be that some third party already modify it and the original workflow is now "broken", and we are now in charge/need of "fixing" it, starting "somewhere".) Imagine that in column "Sheet1.D" (or "Sheet1.D:D" if you'd like) we would like to preform some changes; among others, inserting new columns (or some third party already modified it in some way, and we don't know where exactly the modification was performed that "broke" the original flow of information within the workbook). We use "Tools > Detective > Trace Dependents" to see what would be affected, and the result shows (by a (blue) square and arrow) that there is "something" in "some place other than the same "Sheet1" worksheet of the same file that has some relation to it; we just have no idea what that "something" is. Now we use "Edit > Find and Replace", set the check box to search in "All sheets", "Search in: Formulas" and search for "Sheet1.D". There is nothing found, so we now search for "Sheet1.$D". Nothing found either. So we go ahead and modify "Sheet1" (or someone else already did, and we have no idea what that was), but the result is that the workbook doesn't "work" anymore – not as we expected. There is no option but to analyze the entire workbook with its many worksheets in order to hunt for whatever "broke" it. It turns out that in some other worksheet (for simplicity, let's say it's "Sheet2"), there is a formula such as: =VLOOKUP($B11,$Sheet1.$B$11:$M$99,3) or: =VLOOKUP($B11;$Sheet1.$B$11:$M$99;3) That "3" means that the above formula depends on "Sheet1.D". Moreover, the whole construction of columns B to M in Sheet1 should be considered, and cannot just be simply modified independently. Searching (by means of CTRL-H) for anything like "Sheet1.C" to "Sheet1.N", and/or anything like "Sheet1.$C" to "Sheet1.$N" would be useless, and yet there are clear dependencies in this very simplified example. How much time we, users, have to invest in the _partial_ workaround of using CTRL-H, instead of having "Trace > Dependents" (and "Trace > Precedents" and other "Detective" features) working on additional places other than the current worksheet only? In my experience, the answer is "too much" (and clearly many, many others agree). And then, much more additional time is wasted when the lengthy partial workaround is not nearly enough (as the aforementioned simplified example shows). This is a simplified example; it can be much more complicated and time-consuming to analyze a multiple-sheet workbook when we don't have the "tracing" (or "Detective") feature working on multiple sheets. I even tend to limit myself to using one worksheet only (with multiple hidden areas and what not) just because of this limitation in the "Detective" tools, while I'd rather be able to effectively use more than one worksheet when it is worth. This RFE is much, much more than just "a nice thing to have". -- You are receiving this mail because: You are the assignee for the bug.
