Bug 151111 - Paste special dialog significantly deficient in options
Summary: Paste special dialog significantly deficient in options
Status: RESOLVED INVALID
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
Inherited From OOo
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Paste-Special
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Reported: 2022-09-21 22:26 UTC by Eyal Rozenberg
Modified: 2023-10-06 08:25 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

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Description Eyal Rozenberg 2022-09-21 22:26:22 UTC
When Pasting tabular content in Calc, we now get the following options:

Unformatted Text;
Text / Number / Formula;
Transpose
Paste as HTML/Unformatted Text/Text Import Dialog

There's redundancy here; plus, it's not immediately clear how the text import dialog is not what you get when you paste as unformatted text. But - that's not why I'm filing this bug...

In actuality, most of these are _orthogonal_ options. A more complete set of options would be:

* Transpose the pasted range(s)? Y/N
* Interpretations, if a source document is defined:
  * Does keeping cell style means using the same-name style in the target document, or "pasting" an additional cell style into the target document?
  * Will reference be interpreted as referring to the source document, or as though the same reference definition has been made in the target document?
* Pre-transformations:
  * Realize pasted range(s)' cell styles into Direct Formatting (DF)? Y/N
  * Replace formulae with their computed values (incl. references)? Y/N
* Kinds of content:
  * Clear out formulas? Y/N
  * Clear out numbers? Y/N
  * Clear out non-number strings? Y/N
  * Clear out anchored objects? Y/N
* Direct Formatting (DF) of the cell:
  * Apply existing DF to the pasted content? Y/N
  * Apply the input range(s)' DF TO the pasted content? Y/N
  * Which DF takes precedence? Pasted or Existing?
* Cell style:
  * Which cell style to have after paste? Existing/Pasted/None
  * (If multiple cell styles are implemented - see bug 149271 - we would also have the option of keeping both styles)
 
I'd say _any_ combination of answers to these questions should be supported (almost; e.g. if formulae are cleared, it doesn't matter how they're interpreted). That's nearly 2^12 * 3 ~= 6000 combinations, not 4. Plus the possible interpretation as other formats besides tabular ranges.
Comment 1 Heiko Tietze 2022-09-23 06:50:04 UTC
(In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #0)
> When Pasting tabular content in Calc, we now get the following options:
> 
> Unformatted Text;
> Text / Number / Formula;
> Transpose
> Paste as HTML/Unformatted Text/Text Import Dialog

I cannot follow these steps. What and how exactly do you copy and paste?
Comment 2 Eyal Rozenberg 2022-09-23 08:05:50 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #1)
> I cannot follow these steps. What and how exactly do you copy and paste?

It doesn't actually matter.

When you right-click the (corner cell of) your target area, the context menu shows the Paste Special submenu. That is what I'm referring to. Also, the Edit | Paste Special submenu on the main menus.

Those menus don't change according to what you have selected or in the clipboard.
Comment 3 QA Administrators 2022-09-24 03:42:44 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 4 Heiko Tietze 2022-09-26 10:05:46 UTC
So you are using the context menu and not the paste special dialog (shift + ctrl + insert or context menu paste special > paste special...). Thing is that a selection of option is pretty random here but requires a UNO command. So we decided for example on bug 145414 to not add more options.

Reading comment 0 it sounds as if you challenge the redundancy. Don't get this and wait to resolve the ticket as WF.
Comment 5 Eyal Rozenberg 2022-10-10 21:10:02 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #4)
> So you are using the context menu and not the paste special dialog

Yes, you're right. So, I've actually complained about several things here:

* The choice of items on the context menu.
* The full set of options/items in the Paste Special dialog.

Let's forget about the context menu for now. I want to focus about the dialog.

The set of options/toggles I've listed is not a proper super-set of what's in the dialog. But - it does have several items which the dialog does not. I believe they should all be available in the dialog.
Comment 6 QA Administrators 2022-10-11 03:35:36 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 7 Heiko Tietze 2022-10-11 07:37:39 UTC
I cannot follow this enhancement request. C0 lists a couple of scenarios and asks to combine everything, which makes no sense (and lacks of a clear use case). Then we discuss the context menu coming back to the dialog with c5 stating the dialog has not enough functionality.

Admittedly the documentation has some room for improvement https://help.libreoffice.org/latest/en-US/text/shared/01/02070000.html
Comment 8 Eyal Rozenberg 2022-10-26 21:00:44 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #7)

> Then we discuss the context menu coming back to the dialog with c5
> stating the dialog has not enough functionality.

Let's forget about the context menu entirely. I should not have mentioned it.

> Admittedly the documentation has some room for improvement
> https://help.libreoffice.org/latest/en-US/text/shared/01/02070000.html

This bug report is not about the documentation.


> I cannot follow this enhancement request. C0 lists a couple of scenarios and
> asks to combine everything, which makes no sense (and lacks of a clear use
> case).

C0 is about the space of options for Pasting available via the Paste Special dialog. I believe it should be enlarged beyond what it has currently.

Would you like me to split these suggestions into separate bugs?
Comment 9 Heiko Tietze 2022-11-04 11:51:06 UTC
(In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #0)
> I'd say _any_ combination of answers to these questions should be supported...

(In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #8)
> C0 is about the space of options for Pasting available via the Paste Special...

Sorry, you leave me clueless.

> Would you like me to split these suggestions into separate bugs?

Maybe, but please resolve this as invalid then.
Comment 10 Olivier Hallot 2022-11-12 10:59:49 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #7)
(...)
> Admittedly the documentation has some room for improvement
> https://help.libreoffice.org/latest/en-US/text/shared/01/02070000.html

The quoted Help page contents depends on the calling module.

e.g. Calc:
https://help.libreoffice.org/latest/en-US/text/shared/01/02070000.html?&DbPAR=CALC&System=UNIX

Resolved WORKSFORME WRT to Documentation.
Comment 11 Eyal Rozenberg 2022-11-12 11:08:01 UTC
This bug is in no way about the documentation.
Comment 12 Stéphane Guillou (stragu) 2023-04-05 15:12:50 UTC
The "Interpretations" in C0 should be documentation / tooltips issues.

Regarding the rest of the list, we have:

1. Transpose the pasted range(s)? Y/N
2. Pre-transformations:
  * Realize pasted range(s)' cell styles into Direct Formatting (DF)? Y/N
  * Replace formulae with their computed values (incl. references)? Y/N
3. Kinds of content:
  * Clear out formulas? Y/N
  * Clear out numbers? Y/N
  * Clear out non-number strings? Y/N
  * Clear out anchored objects? Y/N
4. Direct Formatting (DF) of the cell:
  * Apply existing DF to the pasted content? Y/N
  * Apply the input range(s)' DF TO the pasted content? Y/N
  * Which DF takes precedence? Pasted or Existing?
5 Cell style:
  * Which cell style to have after paste? Existing/Pasted/None

As I understand it, we already have the following (tested in 7.6):
1. We have transpose
2. We can already untick "formulas"
3. Clearing out is equivalent to ticking off, which is available for formulas, numbers, text and objects.
4. We can decide if DF is copied across or is taken from target area with the "Format" tick box
5. Keeping the format brings the style with it. Not keeping it keeps the existing target range style.

So we are left with:

2. Pre-transformations:
  * Realize pasted range(s)' cell styles into Direct Formatting (DF)? Y/N

Do I understand this correctly as "Turn copied styles into direct formatting"?
Please open a new ticket for this, so we have a precise request to discuss. Closing this one as invalid as suggested.