Bug 150739 - Add an option to warn when autofill overwrites existing data (turned off by default)
Summary: Add an option to warn when autofill overwrites existing data (turned off by d...
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
7.3.5.2 release
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: AutoFill
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Reported: 2022-09-01 09:31 UTC by Peter Toye
Modified: 2023-04-15 10:38 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

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Crash report or crash signature:


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Description Peter Toye 2022-09-01 09:31:17 UTC
Description:
If a cell is selected and then extended over cells which contain data, the data is overwritten by the autofill without any error message.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. put numeric data into several cells in a column or row.
2. select the first cell
3. extend the selection over the rest of the data

Actual Results:
the data is overwritten with no warning

Expected Results:
at least a warning message


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No



Additional Info:
I'm filing this on behalf of a fellow CIXen who is aiming to give up LibO because they seem to have had this problem.
Comment 1 m_a_riosv 2022-09-02 07:42:08 UTC
It is not a bug, could be a request for enhancement, implying another option setting.

Making it as default, without an option to disable it, IMHO would break, with severity, the workflow.
Comment 2 Peter Toye 2022-09-02 10:04:04 UTC
I take your point about it being an enhancement request.

I don't quite get your second point, though. I'm suggesting a warning message on the lines of "You are trying to put data into a cell which already contains data. Do you want to continue?", which appears when you paste data into a cell. Why are Paste and Autofill treated differently here? How would that severely affect workflow?
Comment 3 Ezinne 2022-09-02 19:45:08 UTC
A warning could be an added feature/UX improvement


Reproducible in:

Version: 7.5.0.0.alpha0+ / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: c54c576a5043dc5a0cc01f8c71897373516ae091
CPU threads: 4; OS: Linux 5.15; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: en-NG (en_NG); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded
Comment 4 m_a_riosv 2022-09-02 20:37:39 UTC
There is an option in Menu/Tools/Options/LibreOffice calc/General - Show overwrite warning when pasting data. Maybe Autofill could follow it.
Comment 5 Heiko Tietze 2022-09-05 07:51:05 UTC
It's expected to overwrite content (and in alignment to competitors). In fact you can double click the rectangle at right bottom to auto fill the neighboring cells. Any warning is counterproductive to the very efficient workflow. I recommend to resolve this request as WF.

Some related tickets:

bug 66890 - Double-clicking fill handle should also overwrite down the entire range => WFM
bug 108209 - Autofill overwrites data with mixed empty and filled cells => FIX
bug 126767 - Autofill doesn't overwrite data in continuously filled cells => FIX
Comment 6 Peter Toye 2022-09-05 09:33:35 UTC
I go with comment 4 here. That way, people who are worried about accidentally overwriting data can have their workflow interrupted. Those who prefer not to have their workflow interrupted can opt not to do so.

While there is obviously a need to follow 'competitors' (surely 'MS Office' would be more accurate), I cannot see the reason to slavishly copy every design bug that MS have introduced. Surely we should be trying to produce a better product, not a carbon copy.
Comment 7 Eike Rathke 2022-09-05 10:41:54 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #5)
> In
> fact you can double click the rectangle at right bottom to auto fill the
> neighboring cells.
Note this is not about double clicking the fill handle (which either stops at a cell with content, or overwrites all for an already filled range; which the mentioned bugs were about) but doing a manual drag fill ("extend the selection") with the fill handle.
Confusingly the term AutoFill seems to be used for both.
Comment 8 Timur 2022-09-05 11:24:14 UTC
Current LO behavior is what majority of users expect. 
Other also don't have a warning for fill/extend overwrite. Not just MSO, but WPS, SoftMaker.
So we may close as WontFix, it wouldn't be wrong. 
But let's leave a room to add an option to warn when autofill overwrites existing data. Even so, that should be turned off by default.
Comment 9 Heiko Tietze 2023-04-03 09:27:49 UTC
It's a no-go to interrupt the workflow. Imagine you pull down the handle and Calc takes over to ask you whether you really want to do this (ending in the situation that you cannot continue anyway). The only solution I see is to inform the user once data got overwritten. But since you manually pull down the handle you should see what's going on.
Comment 10 Peter Toye 2023-04-03 15:06:56 UTC
> But let's leave a room to add an option to warn when autofill overwrites
> existing data. Even so, that should be turned off by default.

Agreed.
Comment 11 Heiko Tietze 2023-04-13 07:22:37 UTC
The topic was on the agenda of the design meeting but didn't receive further input.

Let's change the behavior and show an infobar when autofill (or paste) overwrites data with an option to undo. We should also consider an option to disable the non-interruptive warning.
Comment 12 Peter Toye 2023-04-15 10:38:58 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #11)

> Let's change the behavior and show an infobar when autofill (or paste)
> overwrites data with an option to undo. We should also consider an option to
> disable the non-interruptive warning.

Agreed