Bug 149939 - Allow fields to be rendered as row headers, rather than columns (in Field Designer).
Summary: Allow fields to be rendered as row headers, rather than columns (in Field Des...
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Base (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
7.3.4.2 release
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Database-Tables
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Reported: 2022-07-10 16:48 UTC by Mr. Beedell, Roke Julian Lockhart (RJLB)
Modified: 2026-02-01 10:40 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
A Screenshot Of The Current Behaviour In 25.8.4.2's Table Designer (54.24 KB, image/png)
2026-01-19 20:45 UTC, Mr. Beedell, Roke Julian Lockhart (RJLB)
Details
Shows difference for tables with column headers and row headers (35.48 KB, application/pdf)
2026-01-30 08:03 UTC, Robert Großkopf
Details

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Description Mr. Beedell, Roke Julian Lockhart (RJLB) 2022-07-10 16:48:22 UTC
If many fields are present but not many entries, the current horizontal layout of fields is inferior to vertical presentation of those fields, because the aspect-ratios of most screens allow presentation of more rows than they do columns.
Comment 1 Olivier Hallot 2026-01-19 18:45:43 UTC
Can you be more precise on the demand? 

Please attach an image (or screenshot) of the issue you have and give us details of what kind of document you are working on (text? presentation? spreadsheet?...)
Comment 2 Mr. Beedell, Roke Julian Lockhart (RJLB) 2026-01-19 20:45:45 UTC
Created attachment 205089 [details]
A Screenshot Of The Current Behaviour In 25.8.4.2's Table Designer

I sincerely apologise. I was only 17 years of age when I filed this, and was commensurately lazy when I filed bugs. In retrospect, I can only presume that I refer to Base's Table Designer's interface, because when multiple fields exist, having the headings on the side allows the user to view more of the text of each field label.

In that case, this would help to mitigate https://ask.libreoffice.org/t/how-can-i-set-all-base-table-designer-columns-to-automatic-width-by-default/131172?u=rokejulianlockhart, although that's tangential.

I have attached a screenshot of the current behaviour, in order to somewhat demonstrate my rationale, but since I hit:

> ~~~
> Error code: 1
> firebird_sdbc error:
> *unsuccessful metadata update
> *new record size of 65844 bytes is too big
> *TABLE Tasks
> caused by
> 'CREATE TABLE "Tasks" ("ID" INTEGER NOT NULL,"Notes" VARCHAR(8000),"TaskID" INTEGER,"EndDate" DATE,"StartDate" DATE,"Description" VARCHAR(8000),"Field" VARCHAR(50),"Field2" VARCHAR(50),"Field3" VARCHAR(50),"Field4" VARCHAR(50),"Field5" VARCHAR(50),"Field6" VARCHAR(50),"Field7" VARCHAR(50),"Field8" VARCHAR(50),"Field9" VARCHAR(50), PRIMARY KEY  ("ID"))'
> ~~~

…if I attempt to add more than ⪆ 7 fields, in `libreoffice-base-25.8.4.2-2.fc43`, I can't demonstrate it well.
Comment 3 QA Administrators 2026-01-29 10:23:24 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 4 Robert Großkopf 2026-01-30 08:03:17 UTC
Created attachment 205267 [details]
Shows difference for tables with column headers and row headers

Would be good for a table, which contains many fields but only one row. But don't know if it is possible to create such a feature.

This had never been implemented, so it is a new feature request.