Bug 78334 - EDITING: The Header and footer option under Edit is greyed out and that's unclear for user
Summary: EDITING: The Header and footer option under Edit is greyed out and that's unc...
Status: RESOLVED INVALID
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
4.2.3.3 release
Hardware: Other All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard: BSA
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2014-05-06 12:01 UTC by Adam Niedling
Modified: 2018-10-27 15:26 UTC (History)
6 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Example spreadsheet in which header and footer is greyed out. (6.50 KB, application/vnd.ms-excel)
2014-05-06 12:01 UTC, Adam Niedling
Details
Same on Writer (84.83 KB, image/png)
2014-05-26 12:40 UTC, Claude R Perrin
Details

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Description Adam Niedling 2014-05-06 12:01:42 UTC
Created attachment 98554 [details]
Example spreadsheet in which header and footer is greyed out.

Problem description: 

Steps to reproduce:
1. Open the attached document.
2. Go to Edit->Header and footer

Current behavior:
Header and footer is greyed out so it can't be edited.

Expected behavior:
Header and footer should be editable.
              
Operating System: All
Version: 4.2.3.3 release
Comment 1 Adam Niedling 2014-05-06 12:02:42 UTC
I also tried to convert it to .ods but it's still no good.
Comment 2 sophie 2014-05-06 12:26:33 UTC
Hi, to be able to edit a header or a footer, there needs to be actually a header and a footer in the spreadsheet. So go under Format > Page > Header/Footer and activate them and then they will be editable. 
Set as notabug - Sophie
Comment 3 Adam Niedling 2014-05-06 14:04:39 UTC
You're right, thanks. Sorry about that!
Comment 4 Claude R Perrin 2014-05-26 12:40:09 UTC
Created attachment 99866 [details]
Same on Writer

There's same problem on Writer.
In this new version, behaviour of the menu item has been changed.
Users are now confused and I've received several complaints.
There something to fix:
Option 1 - preserve compatibility: Enable Header/Footer when user clic on this ungrayed menu item 


Option 2 - painfull for user : Delete this item and let user search in Format/Page ...
Comment 5 sophie 2014-05-27 15:40:51 UTC
(In reply to comment #4)
> Created attachment 99866 [details]
> Same on Writer
> 
> There's same problem on Writer.
> In this new version, behaviour of the menu item has been changed.
> Users are now confused and I've received several complaints.
> There something to fix:
> Option 1 - preserve compatibility: Enable Header/Footer when user clic on
> this ungrayed menu item 
> 
> 
> Option 2 - painfull for user : Delete this item and let user search in
> Format/Page ...

This is completely different, footnotes/endnotes are not header or footer. Please ask for help on the user list to learn how to use footnotes/endnotes or headers/footers and it has not been changed in this version - Closing again - Sophie
Comment 6 Adam Niedling 2014-08-06 12:43:40 UTC
sophie: After a second consideration I think this is really a usability issue. The "Edit->Header and footer" should never be greyed out. If you open the same document in Microsoft Excel it just lets you edit the header and the footer. There is no secret setting that has to be enabled somewhere deep in the menu before it allows you to edit it. Could you please leave this bug open until a developer or a usability expert has the chance to take a look at this?
Comment 7 sophie 2014-08-06 14:53:55 UTC
Hi, an object that doesn't exist can't be edited, if the page style has no header/footer, it can't be edited. So I put it back as unconfirmed as per our policy. Sophie
Comment 8 sophie 2014-08-06 14:54:17 UTC
Back to unconfirmed. Sophie
Comment 9 Robinson Tryon (qubit) 2014-12-22 05:31:25 UTC
(In reply to Adam Niedling from comment #6)
> sophie: After a second consideration I think this is really a usability
> issue. The "Edit->Header and footer" should never be greyed out. If you open
> the same document in Microsoft Excel it just lets you edit the header and
> the footer.

Hmm hmm...

(In reply to sophie from comment #7)
> Hi, an object that doesn't exist can't be edited, if the page style has no
> header/footer, it can't be edited.

As I see it, the underlying question is: Do we offer editing of header/footer and create the object on-the-fly as needed?

Adam again:
> Could you please leave this bug
> open until a developer or a usability expert has the chance to take a look

Tossing this one over to UX to triage.
Comment 10 Adam Niedling 2015-10-05 19:45:30 UTC
Still confirmed in version 5.0.2.2 (Ubuntu 15.10).
Comment 11 Robinson Tryon (qubit) 2016-08-25 05:39:22 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 12 Heiko Tietze 2017-11-14 13:14:50 UTC
Disabled functions are not easy to understand. Edit > Hyperlink is disabled unless your focus is on such a text. Much has changed in the past and Header/Footer is now available under Insert in Writer. 
Calc was clarified in comment 2.

Closing this issue as INVALID (actually outdated).
Comment 13 Adam Niedling 2018-10-27 15:26:12 UTC
I still don't think that the "Edit->Header and footer" should be greyed out. See my comment about this.

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=78334#c6