Bug 115004 - New technology for Calc (subcells) - Improvement
Summary: New technology for Calc (subcells) - Improvement
Status: CLOSED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
Inherited From OOo
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2018-01-14 17:54 UTC by mrmister001
Modified: 2023-05-17 20:52 UTC (History)
6 users (show)

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Crash report or crash signature:


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Description mrmister001 2018-01-14 17:54:51 UTC
Description:
This new technology will provide the ability to Calc to creat subcells.
You will be able to didive a single cell made by a column and a row, for example cell B4 into subcells.
If the cell B4 is divided into three different subcells, you would have
B1.4, B2.4, B3.4
Where
- B(is the colum)
- (the number is the subcell)
- . (the full stop separates the subcell from the row)
- (the number after the full stop is the row)

To understand how it works see these pictures:

Actual technology

http://oi63.tinypic.com/2it0s5x.jpg

Improved technology
Cells subdivision

http://oi68.tinypic.com/2ln8t9v.jpg


Steps to Reproduce:
The feature should work as follows
1. Click on the cell you want to subdivide
2. Press a combination of keys (for example, Ctrl and +)
3. Create (add) a subdivision of the cell
4. Press a combination of keys (for example, Ctrl and -)
5. Delete (remove) a subdivision of the cell

Actual Results:  
Single cell, impossible to divide it into subcells

Expected Results:
Divide a single cell into subcells.

IMPORTANT: Cells divisions should not exceed 3 or 5 divisions, consequently a single cell could be subdivided into 3 or 5 (as much) subcells.


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No



Additional Info:
Create subdivisions into a single cells by pressing a key-commands combination

This feature is NEW in the industry.

The feature is important to provide a better formatting for complex spreadsheets
Current spreadsheets (cells and rows) are coming from the 70s with old Monochrome monitors (green), those computers did not needed a complex and rich format to show data. A cell made by a column and a row was enough to show the data.

Actual computers need rich content with extensive format. Subcells are important because allow to show, display, handle and calculate data, allowing a better organization in the screen.

The technology is brand new and Microsoft Office did not implemented it yet.

This technology would require a WHOLE REPROGRAMING of how Calc works.


User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; Win64; x64; rv:57.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/57.0
Comment 1 Buovjaga 2018-02-11 13:37:27 UTC
So having subcolumns would not be enough like in G. Docs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs4Zh7TplYc
but you want individual cells to be able to have subcells specifically?
Comment 2 Timur 2018-07-31 16:08:41 UTC
Let's discuss here subcells and subcolumns can be a separate issue.
Comment 3 m_a_riosv 2018-07-31 20:46:01 UTC
I'm not sure, but I think there is request for enhancement about having a third dimension on a sheet. I'm not able to find it.

IMHO implies such a big and deep changes, on internal manage, functions, arrays, compatibility, that I think the implementation it's not viable.
Comment 4 Regina Henschel 2018-07-31 21:20:49 UTC
Calc has already the ability to merge cells. So instead of splitting a cell you can merge the cells around.

I miss use cases for such feature in Calc.
Comment 5 Heiko Tietze 2018-08-01 07:57:37 UTC
Missed the use case myself but mmister wrote it at the end: "The feature is important to provide a better formatting for complex spreadsheets". Let's rephrase this into: "When I use a spreadsheet to present data it happens that after entering a lot of numbers I need to split a cell." That's possible in Writer and Draw/Impress (Table > Split Cells... via menu in Writer and context menu in Impress). 

When no other product offers a feature it also means your invention will be proprietary eventually. LibreOffice is proud to deliver _one_ tool for the manipulation open document format; it's up to the user to switch from one to another tool, which is a great result from open source. So your request goes to ODF, presuming that Calc tables are differently defined.

> This technology would require a WHOLE REPROGRAMING of how Calc works.

Wouldn't be my advice to throw away +30 years of work of hundreds of contributors for a feature that is available in other modules. :-)
Comment 6 Tomaz Vajngerl 2018-08-01 09:21:10 UTC
"So your request goes to ODF, presuming that Calc tables are differently defined."

That's not how it works. There must be an implementer first before you can suggest it for inclusion into ODF. It's totally up to us to decide if we want to implement a new feature (and extend the ODF specs) or not.
Comment 7 Timur 2018-08-01 11:35:36 UTC
This seems like a useful idea to me, albeit complex and not realistic to implement. 
WontFix may be a reality now, but that doesn't prevent anyone to start analyzing and preparing code. 
I wish we had "DevEval" on how large a requirement is for "internal manage, functions, arrays, compatibility", etc.
Comment 8 Stacey Clay 2020-05-03 09:40:34 UTC Comment hidden (spam)