Bug 122858 - Selecting multiple cells, then typing, affects just one cell
Summary: Selecting multiple cells, then typing, affects just one cell
Status: RESOLVED NOTABUG
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
6.1.4.2 release
Hardware: x86-64 (AMD64) Linux (All)
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2019-01-21 15:04 UTC by Konstantin Kharlamov
Modified: 2019-01-23 13:38 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

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Description Konstantin Kharlamov 2019-01-21 15:04:25 UTC
Usually when you select multiple items, this means you want to do something with all of them. E.g. if you selected multiple cells, and pressed "Italic", all selected cells turns italic.

By this analogy, selecting cells, and starting to type should make the text appear in all selected cells (this feature is in particular employed by vim-like editors). But actually, this affects just single cell.

# Steps to reproduce

1. Open `localc`
2. Select two cells
3. Type "hello"
4. Press Enter

# Expected

"Hello" appears in all selected cells.

# Actual

"Hello" only appears in one cell.
Comment 1 Xisco Faulí 2019-01-21 23:10:13 UTC
Hello Konstantin,
This is not the way Calc is designed to work. If you input some content to a selection, it will only be added to the first cell in the selection. However, you can drag&drop the bottom right corner to replicate the content in the different cells.
Closing as RESOLVED NOTABUG
Comment 2 Konstantin Kharlamov 2019-01-22 06:36:44 UTC
> This is not the way Calc is designed to work.

@Xisco Faulí but wouldn't it be more rational if it did? Right now selecting multiple cells and typing a text does same thing as selecting a single one, which is a wasted opportunity to do something useful instead.
Comment 3 Konstantin Kharlamov 2019-01-22 06:39:40 UTC
Btw, 

> However, you can drag&drop the bottom right corner to replicate the content in the different cells

This is twice the number of actions compared to just selecting cells, and typing the text. Because you need to do the drag'n'drop for every cell where you wanted the text.
Comment 4 Xavier Van Wijmeersch 2019-01-22 11:26:14 UTC
@Konstantin

When finishing typing just (step 4) alt+enter and the selected cells will be filled with text or numbers.
Its not a bug

Best regards
Comment 5 Konstantin Kharlamov 2019-01-22 11:32:50 UTC
(In reply to Xavier Van Wijmeersch from comment #4)
> @Konstantin
> 
> When finishing typing just (step 4) alt+enter and the selected cells will be
> filled with text or numbers.
> Its not a bug
> 
> Best regards

Okay, it's not a bug, let's call it a feature request. But it wouldn't hurt to have it, would it? I mean, it would improve the user experience more than some obscure shortcut which is not easy to find.
Comment 6 Xisco Faulí 2019-01-22 12:45:41 UTC
@Regina, @Eike, any opinion on this enhancement request ?
Comment 7 Regina Henschel 2019-01-22 13:47:36 UTC
A similar feature is available in Calc. Select the cells, then enter the content not in a cell, but in the input line. Finish with Alt+Enter.
Comment 8 Konstantin Kharlamov 2019-01-22 13:54:55 UTC
(In reply to Regina Henschel from comment #7)
> A similar feature is available in Calc. Select the cells, then enter the
> content not in a cell, but in the input line. Finish with Alt+Enter.

It's a very hard to find feature. E.g. query to google "libreoffice calc enter text to multiple columns"¹ gives nothing relevant.

On the other hand, what I suggest here is an intuitive design decision, and would not require searching at all.
Comment 9 Konstantin Kharlamov 2019-01-22 13:56:25 UTC
FTR, I could find if I had entered "cells" instead of "columns", doh. Still, the point stands.
Comment 10 Eike Rathke 2019-01-22 17:44:20 UTC
(In reply to Regina Henschel from comment #7)
> A similar feature is available in Calc. Select the cells, then enter the
> content not in a cell, but in the input line. Finish with Alt+Enter.
Fwiw, it also works if content is entered in a cell, not just in the Input Line. Important is Alt+Enter. It even works across multiple selected sheets.
Comment 11 Konstantin Kharlamov 2019-01-23 09:45:56 UTC
So, is there any opposition to keeping this opened as a feature request?
Comment 12 Xisco Faulí 2019-01-23 09:50:18 UTC
(In reply to Konstantin Kharlamov from comment #11)
> So, is there any opposition to keeping this opened as a feature request?

Why, it's already implemented with Alt+Enter
Comment 13 Konstantin Kharlamov 2019-01-23 11:08:47 UTC
(In reply to Xisco Faulí from comment #12)
> (In reply to Konstantin Kharlamov from comment #11)
> > So, is there any opposition to keeping this opened as a feature request?
> 
> Why, it's already implemented with Alt+Enter

Because it's not an intuitive design decision. There's no visual hint, nor even a text entry in context menu. It's just some arbitrary hotkey which is not even easy to find (I haven't found back when I worked with Calc).

I am not suggesting to remove the Alt+Enter feature, but adding a more intuitive way as an alternative surely won't hurt.
Comment 14 Eike Rathke 2019-01-23 13:28:56 UTC
What alternative? Plain Enter can't be used as selecting a cell range and then entering values closing with Enter moves the cell cursor within the selection, moving to the next column within the selection when reaching the end row of the selection. Which is far more used than entering the same value into a selected cell range.
Comment 15 Konstantin Kharlamov 2019-01-23 13:38:13 UTC
(In reply to Eike Rathke from comment #14)
> What alternative? Plain Enter can't be used as selecting a cell range and
> then entering values closing with Enter moves the cell cursor within the
> selection, moving to the next column within the selection when reaching the
> end row of the selection. Which is far more used than entering the same
> value into a selected cell range.

Ah, okay, I think I see. So, to sum up: such feature would conflict with another workflow, where one selects cells, starts typing in a cell, and then moves to the next cell within the selected ones.