Bug 139977 - Tools>Options>LibreOffice Writer>Table dialog, "Variable" setting does not work when resizing cells with keyboard shortcut (comment 7)
Summary: Tools>Options>LibreOffice Writer>Table dialog, "Variable" setting does not wo...
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
6.0.7.3 release
Hardware: x86-64 (AMD64) All
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: difficultyBeginner, easyHack, skillDesign, topicDesign
Depends on:
Blocks: Writer-Tables
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2021-01-28 16:28 UTC by jcsanz
Modified: 2022-12-01 14:19 UTC (History)
6 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Column width behavior (mp4) (3.36 MB, video/mp4)
2022-06-26 13:23 UTC, Amalia Constantin
Details
Column width behavior (Windows Media Player) (5.69 MB, video/x-ms-wmv)
2022-06-26 13:24 UTC, Amalia Constantin
Details
Screenshot (18.74 KB, image/png)
2022-12-01 13:42 UTC, Heiko Tietze
Details
Test results for cell resize shortcut Ctrl + Alt + Right (14.93 KB, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text)
2022-12-01 14:06 UTC, Stéphane Guillou (stragu)
Details

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Description jcsanz 2021-01-28 16:28:21 UTC
Description:
On Tools>Optionns>LibreOffice Writer>Table dialog, section "Behavior of rows/columns" don't matter what option you choose, the behavior is always the same: if you change a column width the adjacent column change its width no matter wich option is selected

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Open Tools>Optionns>LibreOffice Writer>Table dialog
2.On section "Behavior of rows/columns" select some option but "Fixed"
3.OK to close de dialog

Actual Results:
Don´t mater wich option you select, if you change a column width, the adjacent setion width change

Expected Results:
If is selected "Fixed, proportional" changes to a row or column have an effect on the entire table.
If "Variable" is selected changes to a row or column affect the table size.


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: Yes



Additional Info:
Version: 6.0.7.3 (x64)
Build ID: dc89aa7a9eabfd848af146d5086077aeed2ae4a5
CPU threads: 4; OS: Windows 10.0; UI render: default; 
Locale: es-ES (es_ES); Calc: CL

Version: 7.0.4.2 (x64)
Build ID: dcf040e67528d9187c66b2379df5ea4407429775
CPU threads: 4; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 18363; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: es-ES (es_ES); Interfaz: es-ES
Calc: CL
Comment 1 himajin100000 2021-02-12 10:17:48 UTC
1. Launch Writer
2. [Table]->[Insert Table]
3. Set [Columns] to 3, and press OK
4. Select the table, right click and choose [Table Properties]
5. From [Alignment] in [Table] Tab, Select [Left]
6. Change [Width] to 9cm
7. Select [Columns] Tab
8. Set columns width to 1cm, 2cm, 6cm
--
9. [Tools]->[Options]->[LibreOffice Writer]-[Table]
10. Select [Fixed] and press OK
11. Select a cell in the first column
12. hold Alt key and press right arrow key twice.
13. Confirm that the column widths are 2cm, 1cm, 6cm (i.e. Table Width = 9cm)
--
14. Undo twice. Now the column width is 1cm, 2cm, 6cm
15. [Tools]->[Options]->[LibreOffice Writer]-[Table]
16. Select [Fixed, proportional] and press OK
17. Select a cell in the first column
18. hold Alt key and press right arrow key twice.
19. Confirm that the column widths are 2cm, (9-2) / (1 + 3) = 1.75 cm ,  3 * (9-2) / (1 + 3) cm = 5.25 cm  (i.e. Table Width = 9cm)
--
20. Undo twice. Now the column width is 1cm, 2cm, 6cm
21. [Tools]->[Options]->[LibreOffice Writer]-[Table]
22. Select [Variable] and press OK
23. Select a cell in the first column
24. hold Alt key and press right arrow key twice.
25. Confirm that the column widths are 2cm, 2cm, 6cm (i.e. Table Width = 10cm)
Comment 2 himajin100000 2021-02-12 10:19:02 UTC
Version: 7.2.0.0.alpha0+ (x64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: e0843b1fe6e39d3e5f14c8f13476008f17c8ed2e
CPU threads: 4; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19042; UI render: default; VCL: win
Locale: ja-JP (ja_JP); UI: en-US
Calc: CL
Comment 3 himajin100000 2021-02-12 10:31:26 UTC
note: by saying "Select a cell in the first column", I meant putting a caret there.
Comment 4 Dieter 2022-02-12 04:49:36 UTC
Himajin, I don't want to follow all your steps, so simple question: Do you confirm the bug report or not?
Comment 5 Amalia Constantin 2022-06-26 13:23:50 UTC
Created attachment 180973 [details]
Column width behavior (mp4)
Comment 6 Amalia Constantin 2022-06-26 13:24:43 UTC
Created attachment 180974 [details]
Column width behavior (Windows Media Player)
Comment 7 Amalia Constantin 2022-06-26 13:30:16 UTC
The identified issue is that the Variable option does not behave as expected when the cell width is changed, table size is not changed as expected. Variable behavior is the same as the one encountered for the Fixed option. 

Used documentation to clarify expected behavior. 
Documentation link available here: https://help.libreoffice.org/latest/en-GB/text/swriter/guide/tablemode.html?&DbPAR=WRITER&System=WIN

Note that these properties are valid only for changes to the column width that are made using the keyboard. Using the mouse, you are free to make any column width changes.
To set the Behavior of rows/columns options for tables in text documents, choose Tools - Options - LibreOffice Writer - Table. 
There are three display modes for tables:
	• Fixed - changes only affect the adjacent cell, and not the entire table. For example, when you widen a cell, the adjacent cell becomes narrower, but the width of the table remains constant.
	• Fixed, proportional - changes affect the entire table, and wide cells shrink more than narrow cells. For example, when you widen a cell, the adjacent cells become proportionally narrower, but the width of the table remains constant.
	• Variable - changes affect the table size. For example, when you widen a cell, the width of the table increases.

To Change the Width of a Cell by keyboard, documentation link available here: https://help.libreoffice.org/latest/en-GB/text/swriter/guide/table_sizing.html?&DbPAR=WRITER&System=WIN
Hold down Alt+Ctrl, and then press the left or the right arrow key.

Steps to reproduce
	1. New text document, create table (e.g. 5 columns x 4 rows)
	2. Tools - Options - Libre Office Writer - Table - Behavior of rows/columns - Check Fixed - OK
	3. Click on a cell at the interior of the table and use the CTRL+ALT+left/right arrow key to widen and narrow the cell => only the adjacent cell adjusts its width => as expected
	4. Tools - Options - Libre Office Writer - Table - Behavior of rows/columns - Check Fixed, proportional - OK
	5. Click on a cell at the interior of the table and use the CTRL+ALT+left/right arrow key to widen and narrow the cell => the adjacent cell adjust their width proportionally, but the width of the table remains constant => as expected
	6. Tools - Options - Libre Office Writer - Table - Behavior of rows/columns - Variable - OK
	7. Click on a cell at the interior of the table and use the CTRL+ALT+left/right arrow key to widen and narrow the cell => the adjacent cell adjusts their width, but the table size it is not increased - NOT as expected. This behavior is identical to the fixed one, when in fact it should increase the table size, as specified in the documentation.

Video available in attachment Column width behavior.mp4.
 
The issue was reproduced on the following configuration.
Version: 7.3.4.2 (x64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 728fec16bd5f605073805c3c9e7c4212a0120dc5
CPU threads: 16; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19044; UI render: Skia/Vulkan; VCL: win
Locale: en-US (en_US); UI: en-US
Calc: CL
Comment 8 Stéphane Guillou (stragu) 2022-11-26 11:56:59 UTC
As said in Comment 1, the behaviour for rows and columns is as expected: different settings yield different results *when using keyboard keys to resize columns and rows*.

Options in help: https://help.libreoffice.org/7.4/en-US/text/swriter/guide/tablemode.html

Keybindings: https://help.libreoffice.org/7.4/en-US/text/swriter/guide/table_sizing.html

However, Amalia is right in Comment 7: the setting "Variable" for resizing cells using the keyboard shortcut does *not* change the table size like it would for rows and columns. It works exactly as "Fixed" would.

Either:
- the setting is "variable" setting is buggy for cells; or
- the documentation should mention that the "variable" setting is not applicable to cells because it is unclear what should happen to the other rows/cells if the size of the table were to increase.

The question is: what should happen with the other rows if the table size were to increase because of one cell's width increases? Should the whole column increase in width, and therefore single cell "variable" would be the same as column "variable"?

Version: 7.4.2.3 (x64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 382eef1f22670f7f4118c8c2dd222ec7ad009daf
CPU threads: 4; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19045; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: en-GB (en_GB); UI: en-GB
Calc: threaded

(Could not test with Ubuntu 20.04 + GNOME, see Bug 152232)
Comment 9 Heiko Tietze 2022-12-01 13:42:49 UTC
Created attachment 183939 [details]
Screenshot

Situation after 2x alt+left with the various options
Comment 10 Heiko Tietze 2022-12-01 13:46:55 UTC
I cannot confirm a bug here. However, the label is not helpful anyway and might become "Behavior of row/columns via shortcut (alt+left/right)" (not the best label, could be dynamically assigned depending on the OS and the true shortcut; or the shortcut is shown in a tooltip...). When done the documentation needs a bit love too.

Code pointer: sw/uiconfig/swriter/ui/opttablepage.ui
Comment 11 Stéphane Guillou (stragu) 2022-12-01 14:06:34 UTC
Created attachment 183942 [details]
Test results for cell resize shortcut Ctrl + Alt + Right

Thanks, UX team.

Just to make sure I'm as clear as possible: where I think there might be an issue is the *cell* resizing shortcut, Ctrl + Alt + <direction>, when using the "Variable" setting.
It is described as "Changes affect the table size", but it doesn't do that. It only affects the adjacent area, like the "Fixed" setting.

Again, not sure what the solution is.

See the test results in the attachment, with the problem in the last table.
Comment 12 Heiko Tietze 2022-12-01 14:19:28 UTC
Compare the ctrl+alt+left/right behavior (individual cell) with alt+left/right (column) to see the difference. Naming, description, and documentation is no doubt worth to challenge.