Bug 156390 - Automatically show Writer's Formula bar when focused on a table cell with formula
Summary: Automatically show Writer's Formula bar when focused on a table cell with for...
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
Inherited From OOo
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Writer-Tables-Formulas
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2023-07-20 04:46 UTC by James
Modified: 2023-08-25 09:09 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Example (11.55 KB, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text)
2023-07-20 04:47 UTC, James
Details

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Description James 2023-07-20 04:46:52 UTC
Description:
N/A

Steps to Reproduce:
0. Open a fresh document.
1. Create a new table.
2. Reference a row within an expression e.g. = <Table1.B2> + 1 which correctly renders 2.

Actual Results:
Hovering on <Table2.B2> shows me the formula, = <Table1.B2> + 1

Expected Results:
There is some means to edit for the formula outside of re-creation.


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No

Additional Info:
Additional Info:
Version: 7.5.4.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 36ccfdc35048b057fd9854c757a8b67ec53977b6
CPU threads: 16; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19045; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: en-NZ (en_NZ); UI: en-US
Calc: CL threaded
Comment 1 James 2023-07-20 04:47:05 UTC
Created attachment 188485 [details]
Example
Comment 2 Mike Kaganski 2023-07-20 06:04:08 UTC
The Table menu has "Edit Formula (F2)"; and it is explained in the help:

https://help.libreoffice.org/latest/en-US/text/swriter/main0214.html?&DbPAR=WRITER
https://help.libreoffice.org/latest/en-US/text/swriter/guide/calculate.html?&DbPAR=WRITER

Please describe what specifically you propose.
Comment 3 Stéphane Guillou (stragu) 2023-07-20 08:40:25 UTC
I think this is already covered by bug 147233 comment 10 and bug 85754.
I suggest to close as a duplicate of one of those, and James, you could share your suggestion of a solution there?
Comment 4 Stéphane Guillou (stragu) 2023-07-20 08:44:20 UTC
Just want to add that I agree: it should be (1) more obvious that a cell contains a formula, and (2) easier to edit said formula.

I'd be OK with keeping this report open if it focuses on the enhancement "Automatically show formula bar when in a cell with formula" (I could not find this already suggested on Bugzilla).
Comment 5 James 2023-07-20 09:42:27 UTC
(In reply to Stéphane Guillou (stragu) from comment #4)
> Just want to add that I agree: it should be (1) more obvious that a cell
> contains a formula, and (2) easier to edit said formula.
> 
> I'd be OK with keeping this report open if it focuses on the enhancement
> "Automatically show formula bar when in a cell with formula" (I could not
> find this already suggested on Bugzilla).

Yes that would be an ideal solution and it is the case with Calc.
Comment 6 Stéphane Guillou (stragu) 2023-07-20 09:46:34 UTC
OK, seems like a sensible enhancement request to me, marking as new and inherited from OpenOffice.

(no need to credit me in the summary :) )
Comment 7 V Stuart Foote 2023-07-21 15:09:12 UTC
Simply showing the Formula bar may not be enough as it is too easy with it shown to clobber any formula by click navigation to a different table cell or text entry on the now active Formula bar! Made worse bcz <Ctr>+Z does not back out formula changes.

Recipe for "Expression is faulty" results unless the current .uno:InsertFormula gets some edit cursor focus logic added.

The current <F2> toggle, and <Esc> does offers effective work flows for content review--just no indicator the cell holds a formula.
Comment 8 V Stuart Foote 2023-07-21 15:14:25 UTC
(In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #7)
 
> The current <F2> toggle, and <Esc> does offers effective work flows for
> content review--just no indicator the cell holds a formula.

as suggested for bug 85754 leaving the F2 toggle, rather than on mouseover or edit cursor focus, for exposing the Formula bar.
Comment 9 James 2023-08-25 09:09:20 UTC
I have recently tested the F2 keybind via; Version: 7.5.5.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community

If I can make a suggestion then, how about a (on-by default) tool-tip toggle to indicate to the user that it exists however that pressing the key will remove the current input.