Calc: When entering a formula in Format=>Conditional=>Condition, the function wizard is not available, but should be. Conditional formulae can be just as complex as those in cell values. The function wizard is helpful in entering and debugging them, but is not available when entering or editing the condition for conditional formatting. There is no Fx icon when "Formula is" is selected as the condition. And Ctrl/F2 with the cursor in the formula box doesn't invoke the wizard... The dialog for formulae in conditional formatting should match entering a cell value. Thanks for your consideration.
What exactly do you mean with wizard? "No Fx icon" sounds like the functions wizard but I see no relation to the conditional formatting which is all about constant values.
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #1) > What exactly do you mean with wizard? "No Fx icon" sounds like the functions > wizard but I see no relation to the conditional formatting which is all > about constant values. While I'm not the reporter, I'll answer anyway. The request is clear (please re-read). Conditional Format > Condition "Formula is" would benefit from having the possibility of using the Function Wizard. Background: In the FW, after selecting a function, each argument field has the "Fx" icon available, allowing to re-use the FW for the specific field, thus building (complex) formulas by chained / nested functions. In a similar way as the aforementioned arguments' fields, the Conditional Format dialog could have an equivalent feature (when using "Formula is" as Condition). FWIW, as a workaround I use an auxiliary cell to build the formula, and then I cut the resulting formula from such auxiliary cell into the adequate conditional format (on the relevant cell/range).
Your explanation is a good argument to implement the request. Removing the UX keyword.
(In reply to ady from comment #2) > (In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #1) > > What exactly do you mean with wizard? "No Fx icon" sounds like the functions > > wizard but I see no relation to the conditional formatting which is all > > about constant values. > > While I'm not the reporter, I'll answer anyway. > > The request is clear (please re-read). Conditional Format > Condition > "Formula is" would benefit from having the possibility of using the Function > Wizard. > > > Background: > In the FW, after selecting a function, each argument field has the "Fx" icon > available, allowing to re-use the FW for the specific field, thus building > (complex) formulas by chained / nested functions. > > In a similar way as the aforementioned arguments' fields, the Conditional > Format dialog could have an equivalent feature (when using "Formula is" as > Condition). > > FWIW, as a workaround I use an auxiliary cell to build the formula, and then > I cut the resulting formula from such auxiliary cell into the adequate > conditional format (on the relevant cell/range). Thanks for interceding while I was off-line. Conditional formatting is not "all about constant values". The condition can be an expression (formula), and as I noted, can be quite complex. The function wizard (invoked by the Fx button or Ctrl/F2 when entering a cell value) makes entering expressions easier, as Heiko Tietze described. Additionally, it is how one debugs expressions- similar to Excel's "tools=>formula auditing=>evaluate formula", which allows step-by-step (subexpression by subexpression) debugging. There is no way to do this for a conditional formatting expression. The function wizard allows one to determine why a cell's value is wrong. If available in a cell's conditional formatting, it would allow one to determine why the cell's formatting is wrong. It is true that one can sometimes build the conditional formatting condition in another cell with the wizard. I've done this. It is awkward, but works in simple cases. It gets messy and error-prone if the condition expression uses relative or indirect cell references, or there's no convenient place to put the temporary cell. Typically, it involves adding a new column that evaluates the expression as a boolean (0/1) value, checking for unexpected results and revising as needed. You have to do this for each condition in a conditional formatting set. And implement logic for the overlap cases. Then make the corresponding changes in the conditional formatting and delete the temporary cells. Thus, adapting and moving the expression from the temporary cell(s) to the conditional formatting is error prone.