Bug 153495

Due to the dialog logic, at all times there must be either an existing format selected, or the format code typed in (which when it matches an existing format positions on that again). Multi-selection doesn't look feasible in that context. What could probably be done instead of jumping to the General format after having deleted a format, is to look whether another User-defined format is present and position on that, maintaining at least the category listing and if possible the format list position.

What is meant by "support the <Suppr> key"?

"support the <Suppr> key": make pressing <Suppr> delete the selected user-defined format.

I also have the same experience as the OPs.

(In reply to Eike Rathke from comment #1)
> feasible in that context. What could probably be done instead of jumping to
> the General format after having deleted a format, is to look whether another
> User-defined format is present and position on that, maintaining at least
> the category listing and if possible the format list position.

In such hypothetical situation, would there be any risk of accidentally/unknowingly setting such newly on-focus Format on the cell(s) that are/were selected just before opening the Format dialog, by pressing OK when the deletion of Formats finishes?

Perhaps there should be some kind of "Manage (Number) Format Code/Styles" or "Manage Format Cells" dialog somewhere, similar to what happens with Conditional Format, where there is "Conditional > Condition" for a specific (range of) cell(s), while there is "Conditional > Manage" too. Or similar to "Manage Styles". Meaning, list of (User-Defined) Number Format actively used, showing (list of) ranges of cells, and/or "inactive" User-Defined Number Formats (where the list of cells is empty).

FWIW, I recently came across an extension named "TheCAT" for Calc. I'm still learning about it – my first try with it I received a report with several dozen pages" - but maybe this extension already has something useful for this kind of situation.

> 
> What is meant by "support the <Suppr> key"?

* Step 1: select a specific Format (or several) line(s) of the list/box (i.e. the list of formats on the middle-right of the Number Format dialog).
* Step 2: press the [DEL] key.

(In reply to ady from comment #3)
> 
> FWIW, I recently came across an extension named "TheCAT" for Calc. I'm still
> learning about it – my first try with it I received a report with several
> dozen pages" - but maybe this extension already has something useful for
> this kind of situation.

ady, in fact I'm the author of TheCAT :)
And no, TheCAT has no provision for changing the spreadsheet contents.

Feel free to contact me in case of any question.

(In reply to Jean-Francois Nifenecker from comment #4)
> ady, in fact I'm the author of TheCAT :)

What a coincidence! Really.

> And no, TheCAT has no provision for changing the spreadsheet contents.

Sure, I wasn't thinking about active change of the spreadsheet (which is the main issue here in this RFE) by means of TheCAT (which is of course not part of this RFE report). I was rather thinking about TheCAT providing the information about which user-defined number formats are included in the worksheet but not being actively used by any cell. I think I saw something about that, somewhere in the 59-pages of the first report I made with it just this week :). Apologies for the noise.

Anyway, if TheCAT is at least capable of informing about this, then adding some dialog in Calc to manage/act on these would be feasible, I would assume.

(In reply to ady from comment #5)
> 
> Anyway, if TheCAT is at least capable of informing about this, then adding
> some dialog in Calc to manage/act on these would be feasible, I would assume.

In fact, this is where everything began: I got reports in TheCAT that show a huge number of unused user-defined formats (I have several spreadsheets with 400+ such formats, most of them being unused, of course...). So I tried to tidy things up, and stumbled on the painful dialogue :)

Yes, I intended developing an extension for this purpose. My plate is full right now and I'm not sure it would be worth the work, anyway.

Thus this RFE.

(In reply to ady from comment #3)
> In such hypothetical situation, would there be any risk of
> accidentally/unknowingly setting such newly on-focus Format on the cell(s)
> that are/were selected just before opening the Format dialog, by pressing OK
> when the deletion of Formats finishes?
Yes, sure, if you hit the wrong button there's always the risk of doing something wrong.. for that, the current behaviour is better.

(In reply to Eike Rathke from comment #7)
> (In reply to ady from comment #3)
> > In such hypothetical situation, would there be any risk of
> > accidentally/unknowingly setting such newly on-focus Format on the cell(s)
> > that are/were selected just before opening the Format dialog, by pressing OK
> > when the deletion of Formats finishes?
> Yes, sure, if you hit the wrong button there's always the risk of doing
> something wrong.. for that, the current behaviour is better.

Then how the procedure would work? Let me ask this differently: how the traditional use of this dialog would be affected?

We all know that this dialog is very frequently used, and it has been used in a certain way for decades. So, introducing some new feature (which I very much welcome, as I mentioned before) would need to keep as default (procedure) the way it has been used. It has to be the natural default, in order to minimize the chances that (unaware) users would trigger unintentional consequences (such as deleting a Format, especially if they don't know that they are deleting it and without the possibility to recover it).

This is the reason for me to suggest that perhaps it would be better to have a separate dialog, similar to what happens in Conditional Format > Manage, among other features. IOW, having some kind of "Manage" (Custom Number) Format Styles/Codes.

*** Bug 153984 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***