"Show Column" only works if you select the range of columns. It doesn't do anything if you Ctrl-Click the two columns left and right of a hidden column. Please change the code to reveal all columns that are between any selected columns, no matter if I selected them with Shift or Ctrl.
Assign to Kohei, the bugs seems annoying ... For me: Ctrl select -> Hide -> Works well Ctrl select -> Show -> Doesn't work Mark it as medium importance since we got a workaround by using Shift.
But this is the correct behavior. To show a hidden column the hidden column needs to be selected. If you ctrl-click the columns on the left and right sides of the hidden column, the hidden column itself is not selected. But if you select a range of columns including the hidden one, then it is selected (hence show column does the right thing).
Correct for a computer maybe but not for a human: Since I can't see the hidden columns, I don't expect that Shift will select them. Therefore, the behavior is confusing. Also: If "Show" doesn't do anything because no hidden columns are selected, why is it enabled? You see, the behavior of LO is counter-intuitive. Please make the experience more pleasant.
You can just select the columns in range with your mouse even *without* bothering with the Shift or Ctrl. Is that not intuitive enough?
It never occurred to me that this might be possible. I mean: How can I select something that isn't visible? When using "Shift" and the metaphor "Select range", then I can understand why that allows to show the column. But moving the mouse with the left button pressed triggers "Drag&Drop" in my head. I'd expect some kind of column content re-ordering, not selection. I kind of see your approach (selecting in a text editor) but when I look at calc, I'm in "table mode." Table headers allow to sort, drag and crop the column elsewhere, etc. Drag-select didn't occur to me. So no, for me, it isn't intuitive.
Ok, fair enough. But that's how it's done in any spreadsheet programs. Doing it in any other way would be even more confusing even for the experienced spreadsheet users.
Ok. Maybe I can ask for your opinion. What way of showing hidden columns would you consider more intuitive? What information would have helped you more in this situation?
Having some documentation how it is supposed to behave might help. Please see bug 31713 :-) And it would be really great if you could show all hidden columns that are between two selected columns/rows, no matter how they were selected. Just ignore the range selection. Which begs the question how to handle this case: A* [B] C* D [E] F G* [H] I* J K (Selection: A,C,G,I; hidden: B,E,H). If possible, this code should make B and H visible (based on the fact that neither D nor F are selected). A* [B] [C] D* [E] *F [G] [H] I* J K My intuition says "Make BCGH visible". E stays as it is. But I think that becomes too complex. How about this rule: 1. If a hidden column is selected, make it visible. 2. If column[i] and column[j] are selected and all columns[i+1 ... j-1] are hidden, make them visible. I'm aware that the rules might reveal too much but they will never reveal too few columns (i.e. leaving the user in a "why doesn't it work???" state).
As much as I'd like to help you out, changing the current behavior is not something I'm willing to do, since that's been pretty much how any spreadsheet software works, and changing it the way you suggested would cause other technical issues. But we should improve our documentation to make it clear how it's supposed to work. Therefore I'm re-assigning to David.
Existing complex behavior needs better explanation in doc version -> <any>; already assigned
This bug has not been touched by its owner for a long time. To make it clearer which bugs should be fixed by someone else please take following action: - If you are the owner, and you are actively working on the bug, please give it an update. - If you are the owner, and you do not plan to work on it in the near future, please reassign it to the default assignee and change its status to NEW.
I propose to work on the help file and so take the liberty to reassign the bug to me. David if you want to work on it don't hesitate to reassign it to you. Sophie
Assigned to sophie
Created attachment 85198 [details] propose an amended help text I've added an example (thanks to Pierre-Yves) to the text so hopefully it makes it easier for newcomers. Sophie
+1 from me. The new help text looks very good and solves my issue.
fixed with http://cgit.freedesktop.org/libreoffice/help/commit/?id=b9ecf33d0091f374e1380290ea6d03509c78a3c7 I believe
Laurent Balland-Poirier committed a patch related to this issue. It has been pushed to "master": http://cgit.freedesktop.org/libreoffice/help/commit/?id=b9ecf33d0091f374e1380290ea6d03509c78a3c7 fdo#31714 Improve help for Show Row/Column The patch should be included in the daily builds available at http://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/daily/ in the next 24-48 hours. More information about daily builds can be found at: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Testing_Daily_Builds Affected users are encouraged to test the fix and report feedback.