Bug 73613 - UI: Poor thumbnail / preview of Calc files with wide columns in start center
Summary: UI: Poor thumbnail / preview of Calc files with wide columns in start center
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: UI (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
4.2.0.0.alpha1
Hardware: Other All
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard: BSA
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Start-Center
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Reported: 2014-01-14 16:12 UTC by Andy
Modified: 2025-03-03 20:30 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:

Attachments
Pinning to the data area (44.53 KB, image/png)
2025-03-03 14:31 UTC, Andreas Heinisch 		Details
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Description Andy 2014-01-14 16:12:43 UTC 
Problem description: 
In the preview of recent documents shown at the start (new in 4.2), if you have a calc file with a narrow column followed by a very wide one, the preview shows only the very narrow first, resulting is quite abnormal thin preview.
For example, imagine that the calc document has a wide B column full of data, but since it cannot be seen completely, you see only column A which is just 0,5 cm. wide. Of course this suggest that the data in column B could not be printed on an A4 page as they are formatted now, but this should not cause the bad preview here where it does not have anything to do with the printing of the file.

Steps to reproduce:
1. in a Calc Sheet, set column A to 0,58 cm, and column B to 24 cm.; put in any data in both columns.
2. save and close the file with this first sheet as specified
3. close all files so as to visualize the start screen
4. you will see the calc file previewed as a very thin vertical column with nothing at its side, while all other previews will show a rectangular full page

Current behavior:
In this case the preview is pretty useless, as the only column shown gives very little information about the content

Expected behavior:

              
Operating System: Windows 7
Version: 4.2.0.2 rc
Comment 1 Cor Nouws 2014-01-14 20:18:56 UTC 
thanks Andy - confirm this!
Comment 2 Cor Nouws 2014-01-14 20:19:36 UTC 
set version
Comment 3 QA Administrators 2015-07-18 17:42:57 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 4 Andy 2015-07-27 08:52:36 UTC 
As requested by mail, I confirm that the behaviour described is still the same in 4.4.4
When Calc Files have a thin first column and a wide second column, the preview shows only the thin first column and nothing else, giving a deformed preview.
The correct behaviour would show, in a uniform way with other files, the first part of the file with the same width x height proportion of other previews, even if the second column will be shown only partially.
Comment 5 QA Administrators 2016-09-20 10:18:12 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 6 Andy 2016-09-20 21:35:49 UTC 
As requested, I confirm that the problem is still present in LO5.2.1. Nothing has changed
Comment 7 Xisco Faulí 2017-09-29 08:49:13 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 8 Roman Kuznetsov 2018-12-12 18:17:12 UTC 
still repro in

Version: 6.3.0.0.alpha0+
Build ID: 3c964980da07892a02d5ac721d80558c459532d0
CPU threads: 4; OS: Windows 6.1; UI render: default; VCL: win; 
TinderBox: Win-x86@42, Branch:master, Time: 2018-12-12_02:07:45
Locale: ru-RU (ru_RU); UI-Language: en-US
Calc: threaded
Comment 9 QA Administrators 2020-12-12 03:48:50 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 10 QA Administrators 2022-12-13 03:19:24 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 11 QA Administrators 2024-12-13 03:16:25 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 12 Andreas Heinisch 2025-03-03 13:20:58 UTC 
The preview will be generated using the visible columns. If a column is too wide for the available space, additional columns may not be shown. Do you have any ideas on how to resolve this? Perhaps snapping to visible data only?
Comment 13 Andy 2025-03-03 13:35:29 UTC 
Hmm thanks for the interest, how to solve this is not trivial, since the spreadsheet is typically not linked to a page/slide format as are most other docs.

I would say the preview should/could show the content which is visible on the screen at 100% zoom factor having cell A1 at the upper left side, independently from the print settings that translate the content into a page.
This means that if the screen shows some column/rows only partially, this should be reflected in the preview, avoiding the blank preview you get if the first column is too wide to be printed in the standard A4 page.
In the end, the preview goal is just to give a quick impression of the contents of the file.

I really do not know if this easy to implement, tough.
Comment 14 Andreas Heinisch 2025-03-03 14:31:20 UTC 
Created attachment 199579 [details]
Pinning to the data area

Not perfect but IMHO a small improvement.
Comment 15 Andy 2025-03-03 20:26:44 UTC 
I am not sure if I interpret the image correctly... The preview on the left is the empty old one due to the wide column, while that on the right is your proposal for the same doc?
Well that a substantial improvement, I would say
Comment 16 Andreas Heinisch 2025-03-03 20:30:40 UTC 
Sry for the ambigous picture. The first image shows the thumbnail for the test document created using the steps in comment #1.