Bug 172194 - Add UI support for threaded comments in Calc
Summary: Add UI support for threaded comments in Calc
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
26.8.0.0 alpha0+ master
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Calc-Comments Calc-UX XLSX-Comments Sidebar-Comment
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2026-05-21 09:04 UTC by Xisco Faulí
Modified: 2026-06-12 09:01 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
LibreOffice vs 365 (deleted)
2026-05-21 09:04 UTC, Xisco Faulí
Details
LibreOffice vs 365 (104.10 KB, image/png)
2026-05-21 09:07 UTC, Xisco Faulí
Details
sample file (8.72 KB, application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet)
2026-05-21 09:07 UTC, Xisco Faulí
Details
Screenshot 26.8.0 (29.79 KB, image/png)
2026-05-21 11:54 UTC, m_a_riosv
Details
Workflow in Excel (205.41 KB, image/gif)
2026-06-09 11:55 UTC, Heiko Tietze
Details

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Description Xisco Faulí 2026-05-21 09:04:42 UTC
Created attachment 207180 [details]
LibreOffice vs 365

Threaded comments support was cherry-picked from Collabora branch in

- 5ab6a58968cefebcda3a7a194ddee7e337e028bb "sc: add threaded comment data model for Calc annotations"
- d6611c3ccc6458288914ec22078c46fbafaddbce "oox, sc: import xlsx threaded comments and persons"
- f31a5ce3774476067c12043e85e2fca1295fde37 "oox, sc: export xlsx threaded comments and persons"
- a9026d4d1761e11742ef33031fd95d7807c85da8 "xmloff, sc: ODS import/export of threaded comment data"
- b916aae4693afa2ed9fd6bfdd53e82d6f085936c "sc: COKit support for resolving and inserting Calc threaded comments"

being the last commit where part of the UI mechanism was implemented, however, the rendering is still incorrect. See comparison.
Comment 1 Xisco Faulí 2026-05-21 09:06:49 UTC
The content of attachment 207180 [details] has been deleted
Comment 2 Xisco Faulí 2026-05-21 09:07:03 UTC
Created attachment 207181 [details]
LibreOffice vs 365
Comment 3 Xisco Faulí 2026-05-21 09:07:29 UTC
Created attachment 207182 [details]
sample file
Comment 4 Xisco Faulí 2026-05-21 09:08:02 UTC
@Heiko, is it something you can work on ?
Comment 5 m_a_riosv 2026-05-21 11:54:42 UTC
Created attachment 207183 [details]
Screenshot 26.8.0

I think looks fine with:
Version: 26.8.0.0.alpha0+ (X86_64)
Build ID: 40623e9ab29092e2a4c8bf4320f3bc541ad1aa2b
CPU threads: 16; OS: Windows 11 X86_64 (build 26200); UI render: Skia/Vulkan; VCL: win
Locale: es-ES (es_ES); UI: en-US
Calc: CL threaded
Comment 6 Xisco Faulí 2026-05-21 12:27:52 UTC
Hi Miguel,
See the difference between notes and comments: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/the-difference-between-threaded-comments-and-notes-75a51eec-4092-42ab-abf8-7669077b7be3
Comment 7 ady 2026-05-21 12:39:40 UTC
(In reply to m_a_riosv from comment #5)
> Created attachment 207183 [details]
> Screenshot 26.8.0
> 
> I think looks fine with

In Calc, the current Comments (aka Notes in newer Excel) include the mostly-annoying Author and Date data. In attachment 207183 [details], the more-relevant Author and Date info for Threaded Comments (aka Comments in newer Excel) is not seen.
Comment 8 m_a_riosv 2026-05-21 21:39:41 UTC
Ok.
Comment 9 raal 2026-05-24 07:39:47 UTC
Confirm with Version: 26.8.0.0.alpha0+ (X86_64)
Build ID: bd98e4316fce282cb1df7435e39d78e02008d02e
CPU threads: 4; OS: Linux 6.8; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: cs-CZ (cs_CZ.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded

Threaded comment is imported as normal note. No data lost, but cannot reply and no metadata about comments.

With VCL plugin Gen I see the same import as Xisco's printscreen - the height of the note's box is smaller then should be.
Comment 10 Heiko Tietze 2026-06-09 10:12:34 UTC
I don't see a UNO command to customize Reply into the UI. Is this only relevant for file import?

If we only talk about an intermediate state, the "<Comment> \n Reply: <comment>" seems to be sufficient (missing the reply authors, if enabled). If we consider to make this a real feature my take is the sidebar (bug 106316), which exists for Writer yet in a rather early alpha state. Thinking also of sd, where comments are inserted currently at Pos(0,0).
Comment 11 Xisco Faulí 2026-06-09 10:50:20 UTC
 b916aae4693afa2ed9fd6bfdd53e82d6f085936c changed the string in the content menu from "Insert Comment" to "Insert Note" to copy what Excel does.
Since we don't have a UI part for it yet, I revert that in 2633c38f5fc42b9af5bee0e4e89b13dbfb3d438a
Comment 12 Xisco Faulí 2026-06-09 10:53:11 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #10)
> I don't see a UNO command to customize Reply into the UI. Is this only
> relevant for file import?
> 
> If we only talk about an intermediate state, the "<Comment> \n Reply:
> <comment>" seems to be sufficient (missing the reply authors, if enabled).
> If we consider to make this a real feature my take is the sidebar (bug
> 106316), which exists for Writer yet in a rather early alpha state. Thinking
> also of sd, where comments are inserted currently at Pos(0,0).

there is .uno:InsertThreadedComment and .uno:ResolveComment. see b916aae4693afa2ed9fd6bfdd53e82d6f085936c
Comment 13 Heiko Tietze 2026-06-09 11:51:21 UTC
(In reply to Xisco Faulí from comment #12)
> there is .uno:InsertThreadedComment and .uno:ResolveComment

The number of commands without a proper label increases. We should add some filter mechanism so that missing xcu/xcs is blocked.

Anyway, the command becomes disabled on existing comments whether a new file or the Excel sample, and is enabled but does nothing on blank cells.
Comment 14 Heiko Tietze 2026-06-09 11:55:20 UTC
Created attachment 207401 [details]
Workflow in Excel
Comment 15 Heiko Tietze 2026-06-12 09:01:45 UTC
We discussed the topic in the design meeting.

Three options:
a) improve notes by showing the author, adding separator lines, some indentation, etc. 
has the major flaw that we cannot block editing of replies, 
b) create a special dialog, which replaces the notes
some effort and it's not possible to move comments around
c) do it via sidebar
Writer-only yet and very early alpha stage, Show All in Excel also opens a sidebar