Often, one pastes as text values into cells which are actually date & time specifications; and one then has to Format > Cells... to set the appropriate number format, especially in the case of Date or Date&Time - and even then, the setting is manual. Instead, I believe this should be automated on two levels: 1. When selecting a range of cells, or pasting a range of cells, we should get a small pop-up for suggested formats to choose. 2. When entering the relevant tab of Format > Cells..., I should be offered an auto-detected number format based on the values in the selected cell; at least, I should be able to select an autodetect If multiple formats are applicable, a choice among them should be offered rather than just one being a single selected format.
UX Team -- please take a look at this enhancement. Thanks!
(In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #0) > 1. When selecting a range of cells, or pasting a range of cells, we should > get a small pop-up for suggested formats to choose. Nope, the data should rather be interpreted properly. And actually it is, or what example does not work for you?
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #2) > Nope, the data should rather be interpreted properly. And actually it is, or > what example does not work for you? Example 1 ---------- 1. Create a table in Writer with at least 2 cells in a column. 2. Type 18:30 and 19:30 respectively into those two cells 3. Select & Copy the two cells 4. Clear any selected range in Calc. 5. Paste I see the date formatted as: 06:30:00 PM 07:30:00 PM and no offer to choose the format. Weird. Example 2 --------- Select the following two lines: 2001-12-30 17:30 2001-12-29 17:00 and paste them in a Calc sheet. A text import dialog comes up, suggesting the use of ':' and ' ' as separators, with 3 standard columns. I would expect a single datetime column, or two columns, one with date and the other wite time.
[Automated Action] NeedInfo-To-Unconfirmed
Updating status to New because reporter provided more information.
(In reply to Nicole A. from comment #5) > Updating status to New because reporter provided more information. ... not before we've reached agreement that there is a valid expectation here. After information is provided, we typically go back to UNCONFIRMED.
(In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #3) > 18:30... (becomes) 06:30:00 PM You are using 12-hour locale settings. > and no offer to choose the format. Weird. Paste special allows to change the locale. You can change this per cell via number format or globally per tools > options > language and locales. And of course with a template. > 2001-12-30 17:30 Read about Date acceptance patterns at https://help.libreoffice.org/24.8/en-US/text/shared/optionen/01140000.html.
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #7) > (In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #3) > > 18:30... (becomes) 06:30:00 PM > You are using 12-hour locale settings. That doesn't matter. I did not ask for a reformat. If I'd have been offered a choice (like Excel does after pasting) then maybe that would be acceptable. > > and no offer to choose the format. Weird. > Paste special allows to change the locale. But I didn't want to change the locale. > > 2001-12-30 17:30 > Read about Date acceptance patterns at > https://help.libreoffice.org/24.8/en-US/text/shared/optionen/01140000.html. Ok, I have; it means I probably need to change the title of this bug, but - ignoring a common date-time format because it does not correspond to the app locale, and pretending it is just a bunch of character, is not reasonable IMO.
(In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #8) > > You are using 12-hour locale settings. > That doesn't matter. I did not ask for a reformat. You configure something and expect to be asked anyway? Well, most other users would reject this. > ignoring a common date-time format because it does not correspond to the app... Is 1.1 the first of January or a real value? Is Mos/4 a chapter from the bible or some localization? Of course, you may ask to solve the issue with AI...
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #9) > (In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #8) > > > You are using 12-hour locale settings. > > That doesn't matter. I did not ask for a reformat. > You configure something and expect to be asked anyway? Well, most other > users would reject this. I did not configure a request to reformat pasted text. > > ignoring a common date-time format because it does not correspond to the app... > Is 1.1 the first of January or a real value? Is Mos/4 a chapter from the > bible or some localization? Of course, you may ask to solve the issue with > AI... (1.) How many options to interpret 2000-12-31 17:30 are you aware of? (2.) We can use the fact that a column contains many cells to better guess the appropriate format. (3.) If there are multiple options - we can offer them as a list. Even when there are multiple possibilities for the format of a column - it's still a very small number. Specifically, There are only 3 date field orders used on earth: https://i.redd.it/tq41jwj7xzv91.png and even if you want to consider pairs of date fields, there are only 6 of those. And there are even less time formats. (4.) Offering multiple interpretations can always have the "don't interpret anything, just paste the plain strings", which right now, we don't even have.
(In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #3) > Example 1 > I see the date formatted as: > > 06:30:00 PM > 07:30:00 PM The date format depends on your current locale. > and no offer to choose the format. Weird. I'm quite sure that one can format cells in Writer as well.. > Example 2 > Select the following two lines: > > 2001-12-30 17:30 > 2001-12-29 17:00 > > and paste them in a Calc sheet. A text import dialog comes up, suggesting > the use of ':' and ' ' as separators, with 3 standard columns. Can't even reproduce. ':' colon is not a predefined separator. It might be you had previously entered it as Other separator and the dialog remembered it. (Note that when copied from a browser like here the situation is even different and the HTML import is triggered unless overridden with Paste-Special and text import dialog).