Bug 118982 - The menu actions for Sheet -> Delete Rows and Sheet -> Delete Columns act on entire sheet when a column or a row respectively is the selection
Summary: The menu actions for Sheet -> Delete Rows and Sheet -> Delete Columns act on ...
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
Inherited From OOo
Hardware: x86-64 (AMD64) All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Sheet
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Reported: 2018-07-28 22:14 UTC by Stefan_Lange_KA@T-Online.de
Modified: 2023-05-06 18:52 UTC (History)
5 users (show)

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Description Stefan_Lange_KA@T-Online.de 2018-07-28 22:14:48 UTC
When in a sheet document a row is selected, in menu "Table" -> menu item "Insert Columns" both subitems ("to the left" and "to the right") are disabled resp. in the "Columns" tool icon entry list (when clicked on the arrow) not shown, but menu item "Delete column" is enabled resp. entry is shown in the "Columns" tool icon entry list (arrow).
Analogous  behavior but vice versa, when a row is selected!

I don't know if this is so designed but IMHO it is not good, because there is a risk that wrong or inappropriate actions will be carried out.
I had had big problems myself when I had selected a row to delete it but in error I have clicked on "Delete columns" instead of on "Delete rows" and all cells were deleted and formulas on other sheets related to the "cleared" sheet were damaged and were not restored at "Undo" (--> other bug -> will be reported soon).

tested with
Version: 6.1.0.2 (x64)
Build-ID: b3972dcf1284967612d5ee04fea9d15bcf0cc106
CPU-Threads: 4; BS: Windows 10.0; UI-Render: Standard; 
Gebietsschema: de-DE (de_DE); Calc: CL

Reproducing the behavior: 
- create an empty sheet document
- select a row and look to column related menu items in the "Table" menu and to the entries in the "Columns" tool icon entry list
- select a column and look to row related menu items in the "Table" menu and to the entries in the "Rows" tool icon entry list
Comment 1 Xisco Faulí 2018-07-31 10:33:52 UTC
I guess the option 'Delete Columns' in enable because it's adoable action, however, the request make sense from point of view as well.
Anyway lets the UX team decide about it.
Adding Eike to the loop too
Comment 2 Heiko Tietze 2018-08-01 08:15:00 UTC
If you run the command to insert columns it takes the number of selected cols into account. So if you select A:E and insert cols to left you move the content to F:J. And that's not possible for the whole sheet.

You actual use case is differently and stated below. It's possible to kill the whole content per delete row/col when the other direction has been selected. And of course we could disable this command too for safety. But how often do you select all and delete (I do) and isn't it very easy to undo the action after the clear feedback what happened?

So I would rather keep everything as it is.
Comment 3 V Stuart Foote 2018-08-01 11:47:15 UTC
The destructive action of having selected a row and then deleting all columns from  the Sheet -> "Delete Column" entry, or alternatively of having selected a column and then deleting all rows from the Sheet -> "Delete Row" entry makes for a bad UX if done unintentionally.

Seems some warning is needed--"your action would delete all content from this sheet, are you sure?"

Don't need to change the behavior, but should be easy to detect the case. I.e that all columns are selected when a row is the selection, or all rows are selected when a column is selected, and warn against unintentional deletion.
Comment 4 Heiko Tietze 2018-08-02 09:16:47 UTC
Delete all is a common workflow (ctrl+A or click on the top-left cell > del).
Comment 5 Xisco Faulí 2018-08-02 14:46:37 UTC
Also reproduced in

LibreOffice 3.3.0 
OOO330m19 (Build:6)
tag libreoffice-3.3.0.4