Bug 165271 - "Total rows" and "Total columns" options in pivot table layout dialog are worded ambiguously
Summary: "Total rows" and "Total columns" options in pivot table layout dialog are wor...
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
unspecified
Hardware: All All
: medium normal
Assignee: BogdanB
URL:
Whiteboard: target:25.8.0
Keywords: difficultyBeginner, easyHack, skillDesign
Depends on:
Blocks: Pivot-Table Dialog-UX
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2025-02-16 00:31 UTC by Jeff Fortin Tam
Modified: 2025-02-20 10:46 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

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Crash report or crash signature:


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Description Jeff Fortin Tam 2025-02-16 00:31:53 UTC
In the pivot table layout dialog's "Options" expander, there are things including:

* "Total columns"
* "Total rows"

Those are ambiguous and always confusing to me, especially in English where the singular  word "total" can be both a noun or a verb.

As it turns out,

* "Total rows" means "Show a row with columns' totals" (I don't think it actually ever shows more than one such row per pivot table, does it?);

* "Total columns" means "Show a columns with each row's totals".

I would suggest naming them exactly like that, or if you want to keep the checkbox labels short, like this:

* "Show totals row"
(notice the change in the plurals/singular, and the presence of a verb)

* "Show totals column"

...then putting in a hover tooltip the full-length wordings I mentioned earlier.


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Observed on 

Version: 25.2.0.3 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: e1cf4a87eb02d755bce1a01209907ea5ddc8f069
CPU threads: 8; OS: Linux 6.12; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: en-US (en_US.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Flatpak
Calc: threaded
Comment 1 LeroyG 2025-02-16 17:07:11 UTC
In Spanish the wording is:
Columnas totales
Filas totales

Better if:
Columna con totales
Fila con totales

Version: 24.2.7.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: ee3885777aa7032db5a9b65deec9457448a91162
CPU threads: 4; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19045; UI render: Skia/Vulkan; VCL: win
Locale: es-MX (es_ES); UI: en-US
Calc: CL threaded
Comment 2 BogdanB 2025-02-16 18:15:47 UTC
UX Team -- please take a look at this enhancement. Thanks!
Comment 3 Heiko Tietze 2025-02-17 07:47:06 UTC
(In reply to Jeff Fortin Tam from comment #0)
> * "Show totals row"
> * "Show totals column"
This sounds like a good improvement. The long text would occupy too much space.

Code pointer: sc/uiconfig/scalc/ui/pivottablelayoutdialog.ui
Comment 4 BogdanB 2025-02-17 19:09:37 UTC
The changes are in gerrit:

for core: https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/181797
for help: https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/help/+/181798
Comment 5 Commit Notification 2025-02-19 07:08:40 UTC
Bogdan Buzea committed a patch related to this issue.
It has been pushed to "master":

https://git.libreoffice.org/core/commit/fdd666e566a9fe37200c5cd67a8cbc622da7b4ec

tdf#165271 Improve Option dialog for Pivot Table

It will be available in 25.8.0.

The patch should be included in the daily builds available at
https://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/daily/ in the next 24-48 hours. More
information about daily builds can be found at:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Testing_Daily_Builds

Affected users are encouraged to test the fix and report feedback.
Comment 6 Commit Notification 2025-02-20 10:41:09 UTC
Bogdan Buzea committed a patch related to this issue.
It has been pushed to "master":

https://git.libreoffice.org/help/commit/d586cc95d7eeebecddaaea6ba106df6596d2367a

tdf#165271 Improve Option dialog for Pivot Table