Bug 167048 - PIVOTTABLE: display shadow version of changed field names in layout
Summary: PIVOTTABLE: display shadow version of changed field names in layout
Status: UNCONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
unspecified
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Pivot-Table
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2025-06-16 17:53 UTC by Robert Lacroix
Modified: 2025-07-13 14:36 UTC (History)
0 users

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
video demo of problem: column disappears in PT when title changes in source (1.02 MB, video/x-matroska)
2025-07-10 12:29 UTC, Robert Lacroix
Details

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Description Robert Lacroix 2025-06-16 17:53:36 UTC
Description:
Event: User edits column titles in spreadsheet cells. This changes the field layout of a pivot table using these titles as field names. The old column titles no longer appear as fields in the PT layout, so the PT shrinks when it is refreshed.
Goal: The user wishes to recreate the original PT layout with the new field names.
Problem: The user may not know/remember/understand which fields go where to recreate the original PT layout.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Create a pivot table.
2. Change the title of a column of source data.
3. Refresh the pivot table.

Actual Results:
Pivot table shrinks, losing the dimension of the column that was changed.

Expected Results:
The pivot table does not shrink, and the pivot table field name matches the new title in the source data.


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No

Additional Info:
Candidate Solution 1: As suggested by the Summary, display a "shadow version" of the former PT field names in the layout dialog in theie former location (filter/row/column/data). The shadow field cannot be moved or removed, but it will disappear from the layout dialog when the layout is saved,  indicating that the user is satisfied with the modified layout.

Candidate Solution 2: Alternatively, automatically change the PT field names when the PT is refreshed, substituting new title cell values for old title cell values. The PT data structure necessarily remembers the source range, so upon refresh it can replace the field name with the new value.
Comment 1 Robert Lacroix 2025-07-10 12:29:44 UTC
Created attachment 201738 [details]
video demo of problem: column disappears in PT when title changes in source

Thanks to https://wiki.debian.org/DebConf/25 DebCamp attendees for making this video.