Before increase of column count to 16k, range names like "num1" were valid, because they didn't conflict with valid cell/range references. The mentioned increase made those range names invalid, and their definition is rejected by UI; still, they may come from existing files created in earlier versions / generators. Since commit 582fc887f1faafe8ff5f16a13a0208483a93353f Author Luboš Luňák <l.lunak@collabora.com> Date Wed Mar 02 17:30:30 2022 +0100 keep conflicting named ranges working with 16k columns those names are still read and handled as before, to avoid silent document breakage. I believe that it would be an improvement if Calc showed an infobar in such an event, warning users about a possible name conflict. Imagine a user who opened their older spreadsheet, and started to fill column NUM, referencing NUM1 normally, and not realizing that it had such a named range defined long ago; they would be confused why doesn't it work correctly, if they aren't informed promptly. With the infobar, they would be advised to inspect named ranges (or database ranges?), and then the conflicting names could also be marked there in the dialog, too.
Valid enhancement, set to NEW UX-team, do you have some additional ideas here? About infobar using in general here About text on the infobar in this case About some button that could open some dialog for change range name etc...
Sounds to me as old document always present such an infobar. And I assume it's unlikely that non-developer understand the issue. Is it possible to only show the infobar if something is immediate to break? What exactly would be the warning (or is it an information) and what action would the infobar provide?
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #2) > Sounds to me as old document always present such an infobar. Why? > And I assume > it's unlikely that non-developer understand the issue. Why? > Is it possible to only show the infobar if something is immediate to break? The issue is to show the warning when "something is broken", not always. Let me repeat: *Only* when the old spreadsheet already had *user-defined* ranges, and *only* when some of those ranges had names that were valid on older versions, but not in newer versions, *only then* (i.e., when the document *already* has invalid range names, and it only works because we implement a workaround) should a message be shown ... > What exactly would be the warning (or is it an information) and what action > would the infobar provide? ... with something like "Some of the named ranges used in the spreadsheet have invalid names that conflict with row/column names: * num1 * mom2 * kit3 Press this button to open Named ranges dialog and rename these ranges."
(In reply to Mike Kaganski from comment #3) > *Only* when the old spreadsheet already had *user-defined* ranges... Makes sense in this case. > "Some of the named ranges used in the spreadsheet have invalid names that > conflict with row/column names: ... Could imagine that this list can be long, too long for the infobar. So perhaps we show it in a special list on click. The infobar level would be warning, not info (makes it yellow, IIRC).
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #4) > Could imagine that this list can be long, too long for the infobar. So > perhaps we show it in a special list on click. Just limit it to three entries and ellipsis if more. A click list on an infobar IMHO doesn't make much sense if it isn't actionable.