Bug 159788 - Excel cell Notes are reformatted by Libre Calc as a Comment, reducing the first line of all notes to 10 font size upon opening a file.
Summary: Excel cell Notes are reformatted by Libre Calc as a Comment, reducing the fir...
Status: NEEDINFO
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
unspecified
Hardware: All Windows (All)
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
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Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Calc-Comments
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Reported: 2024-02-20 08:08 UTC by Kevin
Modified: 2024-02-28 13:56 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

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Description Kevin 2024-02-20 08:08:25 UTC
Excel has both cell "Notes" and cell "Comments". Libre Calc only has "Comments" which in and of itself is an issue.  As soon as I open an Excel sheet containing Excel cell Notes, Libre reformats the Note's text in both the font type and font size to that of the Libre Calc Comment presets.  Please add cell Notes to Calc  and prevent Calc from automatically changing formatting of cell Notes or Comments.  Thanks!!
Comment 1 Rafael Lima 2024-02-20 14:21:05 UTC
What we have as "Comments" in Calc is the same that Excel had as "Comments" in the past as well.

Apparently, Excel renamed its former "comments" to "notes", and added a new threaded comment feature.

See: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/the-difference-between-threaded-comments-and-notes-75a51eec-4092-42ab-abf8-7669077b7be3

So apparently Calc's "Comments" == Excel's "Notes", so this is not an actual bug.

Maybe the underlying issue is the lack of threaded comments in Calc.
Comment 2 ady 2024-02-20 20:18:51 UTC
(In reply to Rafael Lima from comment #1)
> Maybe the underlying issue is the lack of threaded comments in Calc.

The naming change in Excel from "Comments" to "Notes" started in Excel 365 (or "for the web"). Instead of having classic comments and new threaded comments, MS renamed the old Comments to Notes and the new threaded comments to simply Comments.

There is also the Track Changes features, which in some context are mixed up with Comments/Notes, for example, in discussions about Author and Date information, and/or when trying to unify behaviors between Calc and Writer. This mix up has been a source of confusion and multiple problems for users, so I am mentioning it here for clarity.

Indeed, ATM Calc does not really support threaded comments (AKA as "Comments" in newer versions of Excel).

Probably this should be an enhancement request rather than a bug report.
Comment 3 Kevin 2024-02-25 19:06:20 UTC
I appreciate your observations and added background info.  My take on this is that it a combination bug and enhancement issue.

The bug aspect is that, with Excel having threaded comments AND Notes, the Libre comments need to affect Excel comments, not their Notes.

The enhancement aspect is that we need both Comments and Notes in Libre Calc to allow for both reading and editing their Excel counterparts. Whether one can be addressed without the other would seem doubtful.
Comment 4 Stéphane Guillou (stragu) 2024-02-28 13:56:49 UTC
Which versions of LO and Excel have you been using to test this, Kevin?