Bug 156088 - Cutting selected cells in Calc removes direct formatting
Summary: Cutting selected cells in Calc removes direct formatting
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 64028
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
7.5.3.2 release
Hardware: All All
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
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Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2023-06-28 16:06 UTC by William Friedman
Modified: 2023-06-29 00:33 UTC (History)
0 users

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Description William Friedman 2023-06-28 16:06:31 UTC
Description:
Cutting selected cells in Calc results in any direct formatting being removed. I couldn't believe this behavior and thought that there must be some way to change it, but the answers here confirm that doing so is not possible: https://ask.libreoffice.org/t/how-to-prevent-cell-formatting-being-removed-when-values-are-cut/53102

I'm sure this bug report will prompt recriminations about using styles rather than direct formatting, but from my perspective, the issue is one of consistency: if you direct format a table cell in Writer (e.g., select a cell and bold it), select the cell, and cut it, it does not revert any direct formatting made to the cut cell. (Please, please, please don't apply my plea for consistency in the direction of changing the behavior of cutting Writer table cells to match the current Calc behavior; I can't fathom why anyone would want the current Calc behavior in the first place.)

My first choice would be to change the Calc behavior to match that of Writer tables -- cutting removes the *contents* of the cell (with its formatting), but does *not* affect the formatting of the cell itself. My second choice would be to provide a configuration option, similar to what the current "delete contents" function provides, but allowing setting defaults for cut behavior rather than having to choose them each time.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Direct format a cell in a Calc spreadsheet, e.g., bold it.
2. Type some text in the cell.
3. Cut that cell.
4. Type new text in that cell.

Actual Results:
The new text is formatted in the default formatting of the cell, before the direct formatting changes were made.

Expected Results:
The new text should be formatted according to the direct formatting of the cell before the cut.


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No

Additional Info:
Version: 7.5.3.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 9f56dff12ba03b9acd7730a5a481eea045e468f3
CPU threads: 4; OS: Windows 6.1 Service Pack 1 Build 7601; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: en-US (en_US); UI: en-US
Calc: CL threaded
Comment 1 Eike Rathke 2023-06-28 18:25:01 UTC
This is not a bug. Cut removes the _cell_, that includes all cell formatting, same as Copy copies the entire cell including all formatting. And same as Copy-Paste, Cut is meant to be followed by Paste including all formatting.

If you want to delete content only then either use Del, or Backspace and choose what to delete.
Comment 2 William Friedman 2023-06-28 18:33:37 UTC
I'm confused and disappointed by how easily this report was dismissed.

1) Can you explain why there is a discrepancy between the way that cut functions in Calc and the way it functions in Writer tables? Why does cut in Calc "remove the cell" but cut in Writer does not? What is the conceptual difference between them that would make sense to an ordinary user?

2) Why is it so easy to dismiss what is clearly a confusing and inefficient demand placed on users, as evidenced by the thread from the ask forums I linked to? Why should people have to perform an action in two steps -- copy then delete -- that conceptually should require only one step?

If changing the default behavior is deemed beyond the pale, then I would at least like to make the *option* to change the default cut behavior into an enhancement request. Thank you.
Comment 3 Stéphane Guillou (stragu) 2023-06-29 00:33:16 UTC
Feature has been requested before in bug 64028, closing as a duplicate.
Thanks!

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 64028 ***