Bug 127183 - EDITING: Selection of words by double click and mouse move
Summary: EDITING: Selection of words by double click and mouse move
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
6.2.6.2 release
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Selection
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Reported: 2019-08-27 12:35 UTC by Roland Kurmann
Modified: 2021-01-16 10:28 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

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Crash report or crash signature:


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Description Roland Kurmann 2019-08-27 12:35:54 UTC
Calc does not support selecting several words in a cell by double clicking a word and then moving the mouse to select other words. This behavior is supported by Writer and many other editors. Calc should support word selection as well.

How to reproduce?

1. Paste "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit" in a cell.
2. Go into edit mode of this cell, e.g. by double click -> Cursor is blinking in the cell
3. Double click the word "ipsum" -> the word "ipsum" is selected
4. Move the cursor over "dolor"
-> "ipsum dolor" is not selected, only "ipsum" is selected
5. Move the cursor over "sit"
-> "ipsum dolor sit" is not selected, only "ipsum" is selected

Actual:
Only one word is selected

Expected:
Several words are selected


Comparison in Writer (expected behavior)

1. Paste "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit" in a Writer document.
2. Double click the word "ipsum" -> the word "ipsum" is selected
4. Move the cursor over "dolor" -> "ipsum dolor" is selected
5. Move the cursor over "sit" -> "ipsum dolor sit" is selected
Comment 1 V Stuart Foote 2019-08-28 03:34:14 UTC
<Shift> + with Mouse click allows expanded selection, but not at word bounds.

While <Ctrl>+<Shift>+R/L cursor will expand shrink selection at word bounds.

Good enough? Not clear additional work is justified for Word bounds selection in Calc.
Comment 2 Heiko Tietze 2019-08-28 05:28:54 UTC
Don't think that's possible with Calc's edit engine. Would be a nice to have for conformity but definitely not needed, as Stuart pointed out. Eike, am I right and this is (much) more than an easy hack?
Comment 3 Thomas Lendo 2019-08-29 20:13:34 UTC
Very interesting, with this bug report I learned a new old feature of LibreOffice. :)

I support the idea of the bug reporter. From point of UX and ideally, Calc should behave similar as Writer does. So this selection should be made available also in Calc's cell edit mode if it's technically possible. We've to wait for a Calc developer before deciding to set this bug as Wontfix or New.
Comment 4 Eike Rathke 2019-09-02 11:15:39 UTC
Calc is not Writer.. but if someone wants to implement such Calc <-> EditEngine mouse selection behaviour enhancement, then why not.. but quite certainly not an EasyHack. Didn't dig into.
Comment 5 Heiko Tietze 2019-09-03 06:55:18 UTC
So let's do it for sake of consistency. Removing needsUX.
Comment 6 Roland Kurmann 2019-09-03 07:40:09 UTC
Thanks for your positive consideration.

In my original report, I've described the word selection in a cell. The same "word selection behavior" would also be useful for the formula bar. (Maybe this is  automatically given.)

I'm a programmer and I'm really used to this kind of word selection. As it is fast. No fiddling with the mouse for exact positions.
It seems to be a common behavior in editors. All my editors support it: Kate, Eclipse, atom.
Comment 7 Heiko Tietze 2019-09-03 07:42:19 UTC
(In reply to info from comment #6)
> I'm a programmer...

It would be great if you could look into the issue yourself. Eike could help out with code pointers, though it's not an easyhack.
Comment 8 Roland Kurmann 2019-09-05 13:15:59 UTC
> It would be great if you could look into the issue yourself.

Thanks for the suggestion. Currently, I'm involved in other open source projects and I have not more spare time. Additionally, I'm not a C++ programmer and I do not have a C++ development environment.
Comment 9 Hey 2020-12-10 01:52:15 UTC
Probably is very complicated to program it.


But I only can tell that EVERY SPREADSHEET USER, like me, uses this very very very very often. And even more.

Really, selecting words by double clicking and dragging in cell AND in the formula bar is purely needed.....