Bug 167807 - Proposal: Different semantics (autofill, paste, ...) for Grouping (F12) vs Hiding (context menu)
Summary: Proposal: Different semantics (autofill, paste, ...) for Grouping (F12) vs Hi...
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
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Reported: 2025-08-04 21:19 UTC by vic
Modified: 2025-08-10 17:18 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

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Description vic 2025-08-04 21:19:15 UTC
Description:
This proposal is an alternative solution for allowing autofill to work with hidden rows/columns, in context of the renewed recent discussion in:
https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=56799,
https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=85170,
https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=137774

In particular, in bug 85170, the proposal is for adding a warning when autofill overwrites content in hidden rows/cols, 
but here I'd like to suggest an alternative, to see what people think: 

* Grouping (F12) - for hide out of view only; but any copy paste over, and any autofill operations with/over those hidden rows/cols to be allowed.

* Hiding (from context menu) - for hiding the hidden rows/cols not only from view, but also from any autofill actions; also, by extension, from pasting over them. 

Potential Advantages:
- different people will use one vs the other for different needs
- if the are other actions, besides autofill, that need "hidden" rows/ cols to not be touched, then it can use Hide ; maybe "filtered" rows/cols? 
(I'm not sure, I don't use it much) 
- Hiding for excepting from autofill agrees with the name "Hide" suggesting a real hiding (from computations) ,  not just grouping
- Given that Hidden (via Hide) rows/cols are more prone to be forgotten about than Grouping, it fits that they will never be (accidentally?) overwritten by autofill ( or paste) 
- no need for extra warning at working with "hidden" cells, given that people will learn about this distinction and come to expect that autofill touches Grouped cells

Potential Disadvantages:
- some people may have already the expectation that Grouped rows/cols are not supposed to be touched by autofill actions either. 
But: Excel, G.Sheets allow autofill actions over/involving hidden/grouped rows/cols, thus the set of people being too surprised should not be relatively big.




Steps to Reproduce:
NA

Actual Results:
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Expected Results:
NA


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No

Additional Info:
NA
Comment 1 vic 2025-08-04 21:39:12 UTC
I just recalled another example action that some people may prefer not to touch the hidden rows: sorting. 
So, per proposal above, sorting will affect Grouped & collapsed rows/cols, but not Hidden rows/cols.
Comment 2 m_a_riosv 2025-08-04 21:49:25 UTC
Please don't set up your own reports as NEW.
Comment 3 vic 2025-08-04 22:00:59 UTC
(In reply to m_a_riosv from comment #2)
> Please don't set up your own reports as NEW.
Okay, but What's the point of "unconfirmed" if it's not an actual bug?
Comment 4 m_a_riosv 2025-08-04 22:10:33 UTC
Someone else must confirm it, or a team must agree on the improvement.
Comment 5 fpy 2025-08-10 09:55:51 UTC
to realistically contribute, see https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Design
Comment 6 vic 2025-08-10 17:07:20 UTC
I'll think about that. 
However, given that there are no comments from other users, it may mean there's no interest in this particular one, so far.

But it could be that that this site is lacking a way to vote on a proposal. Maybe some people would like to show approval without having to send a mail to everyone suscribed here.
Comment 7 vic 2025-08-10 17:18:54 UTC
(In reply to fpy from comment #5)
> to realistically contribute, see https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Design

I read there the section "How we work", explaining that in the end: "and eventually, after a couple of iterations and discussions, the proposal is published on our design blog to get input from the community. " 

While on that Design blog, there are only a couple of proposals in a year. 
I guess that is intended only for larger UX changes, or else I don't understand how progress is so slow.