Bug 133417 - EDITING: Insert checkbox easily as in Google Sheets
Summary: EDITING: Insert checkbox easily as in Google Sheets
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
unspecified
Hardware: All All
: high enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: needsDevEval
: 147829 162867 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks: Form-Controls
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2020-05-26 17:01 UTC by omvsj
Modified: 2024-09-09 07:30 UTC (History)
9 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


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Description omvsj 2020-05-26 17:01:14 UTC
Description:
In Google Sheets there's an option in the menu: Insert -> Checkbox. Checkbox is inserted in current cell, is clickable and may be evaluated by cell reference as TRUE (activated) or FALSE (deactivated).

In LibO it's necessary to go to menu View -> Toolbars -> Form Design -> Design Mode -> Insert Checkbox -> Drag with mouse -> Right click in Checkbox -> Anchor to cell -> Right click in Checkbox -> Properties -> Linked cell -> Manually link cell -> Hide cell content (to no overlap checkbox) -> Design Mode -> View -> Toolbars > Form Design

Steps to Reproduce:
1.View
2.Toolbars
3.Form Design
4.Activate Design Mode
5.Click Checkbox
6.Drag with mouse within correct cell
7.Right click in Checkbox
8.Anchor to cell
9.Right click in Checkbox
10.Properties
11.Linked cell
12.Manually link cell
13.Hide cell content (to not overlap checkbox)
14.Deactivate Design Mode
15.View
16.Toolbars
17.Hide Form Design

To create a checkbox in every cell it has to be done manually, one by one, reproducing the steps from 5 to 13. If copied and pasted needs to be edited to change its name.

Actual Results:
Checkbox is inserted, linked to a cell, clickable.
Checkbox can't be resized only text.

Expected Results:
In Google Sheets is so easy to do, only two steps!:
1.Insert
2.Checkbox

Checkbox is inserted in current cell, is clickable and may be evaluated by cell reference as TRUE (activated) or FALSE (deactivated).

To create a checkbox in every cell it may be copied and pasted to a group of cells, to all cells in a row or all cells in a column.

Checkbox may be resized adjusting font size.

It could be a property or content of a cell, this way it's not necessary to go through Form Controls.


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No



Additional Info:
Versión: 6.4.4.2
Id. de compilación: 1:6.4.4~rc2-0ubuntu0.18.04.1
Subprocs. CPU: 4; SO: Linux 5.3; Repres. IU: predet.; VCL: gtk3; 
Configuración regional: es-MX (es_MX.UTF-8); Idioma de IU: es-ES
Calc: threaded
Comment 1 BogdanB 2020-09-18 04:55:29 UTC
Try this:
Tools - Customize - Toolbar - search for "Check"
and insert CheckBox icon.

For future use just one click.
Comment 2 BogdanB 2020-09-18 04:59:31 UTC
Please tell me if this helps you.
Comment 3 Heiko Tietze 2020-09-18 07:43:31 UTC
Insert > Form Control > Checkbox; but this is a floating form control for more complex interactions. I don't see the checkbox being a source of processing in GDoc.

The GDoc checkbox is rather a symbol like Format > Conditional Formatting (Icon Set). You can get the same result with a formula =IF(B2>1;"⊠";"□") (whether the character is available depends on the chosen font).

Does it work for you?
Comment 4 omvsj 2020-09-18 17:40:05 UTC
(In reply to BogdanB from comment #2)
> Please tell me if this helps you.

Hi. This way I can reduce steps but LibO Checkbox is a "floating checkbox" that still needs to be dragged and configured to be linked to a cell which means 9 steps and can't be easily copy/pasted to a bunch of cells.
Comment 5 omvsj 2020-09-18 17:59:20 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #3)
> Insert > Form Control > Checkbox; but this is a floating form control for
> more complex interactions. I don't see the checkbox being a source of
> processing in GDoc.
> 
> The GDoc checkbox is rather a symbol like Format > Conditional Formatting
> (Icon Set). You can get the same result with a formula =IF(B2>1;"⊠";"□")
> (whether the character is available depends on the chosen font).
> 
> Does it work for you?

Not exactly.
In GDocs, you may press spacebar or tick the checkbox and it changes its state (TRUE or FALSE) and changes the icon automatically according to its state.

Conditional Formatting may be applied with less steps to a bunch of cells but:
1) cells will not change its state with a single click or spacebar
2) with this option you need 2 cells: one for input anything and one for displaying an icon. The icon is only cosmetic and has no other function. It doesn't work as a clickable checkbox.

The GDocs checkbox is supereasy as the cell IS a clickable checkbox that doesn't need any formula to work. Is like formatting a cell as Bold or Italic: just one click to configure it as a clickable checkbox and you may tick it or press spacebar to change its state and shape.
Comment 6 QA Administrators 2020-09-19 04:14:13 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 7 Heiko Tietze 2020-09-21 10:51:15 UTC
(In reply to omvsj from comment #5)
> The GDocs checkbox is supereasy as the cell IS a clickable checkbox that
> doesn't need any formula to work. Is like formatting a cell as Bold...

It would be if the checkbox state is taken somewhere. But actually I see no point in this clickable checkbox and would rather recommend to realize this per extension. Keep in mind that more features require maintenance, documentation, localization and clutter the UI. Adding more and more has negative bearing on usability.

What do you think, Eike?
Comment 8 Heiko Tietze 2020-09-25 07:21:47 UTC
We discussed the topic in the design meeting and the simple interaction was appreciated and would be welcome.

Cell content could be still boolean with an additional formatting flag (show as checkbox) and the interaction (toggle on click). It's a question how this would be stored and realized cross-platform/-application (the loss of special formatting and interaction might be acceptable).

GSheet saves the checkbox in odt as 0/1

<table:table-cell table:style-name="ce1" table:formula="of:=FALSE()" office:value-type="float" office:value="0" calcext:value-type="float"><text:p>0</text:p></table:table-cell>

Excel shows FALSE for the checkbox when exported as xlsx.


References (nothing on proper export)
https://support.google.com/docs/answer/7684717?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en
https://www.benlcollins.com/spreadsheets/google-sheets-checkbox/
Comment 9 omvsj 2021-02-06 01:40:38 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #8)
> We discussed the topic in the design meeting and the simple interaction was
> appreciated and would be welcome.

I really appreciate that you discussed it in a meeting.
Comment 10 Heiko Tietze 2023-12-01 15:31:36 UTC
*** Bug 147829 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 11 m_a_riosv 2024-09-08 16:12:10 UTC
*** Bug 162867 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 12 Joseph 2024-09-09 07:05:09 UTC
Any news on this?
I unfortunately created a duplicated thread (https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=162867) but as I say there, this feature is very useful, fast and convenient tool (form checkboxes on the other hand are slow, clumsy, inconvenient and unsightly when used in cells). I use it on every Google Sheet document and i miss it in every Libreoffice document.

Thank you very much for your attention and for making Libreoffice a great tool!