Bug 81711 - XLSX: Import tables with alternating colors for rows and handle references to their names
Summary: XLSX: Import tables with alternating colors for rows and handle references to...
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 66377
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
5.0.2.2 release
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2014-07-24 10:24 UTC by Andras Timar
Modified: 2023-10-30 22:45 UTC (History)
7 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Example file for spreadsheet tables feature (10.08 KB, application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet)
2014-07-24 10:24 UTC, Andras Timar
Details

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Description Andras Timar 2014-07-24 10:24:18 UTC
Created attachment 103394 [details]
Example file for spreadsheet tables feature

in Excel 2007 and newer, select a range, go to Home->Format as Table, and choose a table type. This sets that range as a "Table" along with the nice alternating row colors. Opening this file in Calc or creating a table in Calc will not display any colors.

Moreover, it is possible to refer to these tables by their name in cell formulas. Currently Calc has Err:508 where a cell refers to these table cells.
Comment 1 Joel Madero 2014-07-27 01:03:48 UTC
Confirmed:

New
Enhancement
High - I think that this will be needed and cause headaches for certain users because to them it looks like data loss


@Andras - seems like these are two separate bugs but I figure it's on your radar
Comment 2 Joel Madero 2014-07-27 18:50:27 UTC
*** Bug 80956 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 3 Luke 2015-05-11 06:53:33 UTC
Dupe of Bug 66377 - Feature request: Format As Table

Eike Rathke recently added support to recognize the tags, so the  Err:508 should be gone now in LO 5.0.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 66377 ***
Comment 4 jpd8752 2015-10-12 00:23:34 UTC
-There seemed to be two functions that Andras Timar requested on 20140724.
-One was the removal of the Err:508, which seems to have been completed.
-The second request was to build the 'table' functionality into Calc, modeled after Excel.
-The 'Table' function in excel manages many things easier including (but not limited to) named ranges, enhanced formatting and pivot table function, column names in formulas, expands said named range when new columns or rows are added, and generally better preps the data (normalizes) for use in a database environment more so than just using regular cells and named ranges.

-see thread here: https://ask.libreoffice.org/en/question/4767/creating-tables-in-calc/
-also microsoft's explanation here: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Overview-of-Excel-tables-7ab0bb7d-3a9e-4b56-a3c9-6c94334e492c
Comment 5 jpd8752 2015-10-12 00:27:53 UTC
This one function is really the only reason that I (and i suspect many others) are still using MsExcel. It is a function that most excel users dont use b/c they dont know the benefits. Those that use it have more confidence in their results b/c of the softwares' managing of the named ranges (no cells are accidentally left out).

I am willing to pay for this functionality to be built into Calc if someone will do the coding (i dont know how). I know others will benefit greatly.
Comment 6 Joel Madero 2015-10-12 02:25:28 UTC
REOPENED is incorrect status - moving back to NEW.

As for paying - are you willing to pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars? That's likely how much it'll cost if you're going to hire a company. If you are willing to - I suggest contacting one of our certified developers to get a quote. Millions of lines of code, just tracking down the code can take several hours...at $100/hr (reasonable rate for consulting/coding), you're looking at a few hundreds to just track the code down.

As for "many users sticking with Excel" - so be it. That's now how we run the program - if there are features that our competitors have that we don't, we're not going to demand that volunteers implement those features just to appease users (who aren't the ones doing the work). 

https://www.documentfoundation.org/certification/developers/
Comment 7 Luke 2015-10-12 08:24:52 UTC
jpd8752,
If you didn't mean to pay for the entire project yourself, you could always start a crowd funded project at:
https://www.bountysource.com/teams/libreoffice/issues?tracker_ids=207487
or
https://freedomsponsors.org/project/149/LibreOffice#/LibreOffice

Please post it here if you do.
Comment 8 Luke 2016-05-12 02:37:42 UTC
Table formatting still not implemented in 5.2.0.0.alpha1+
Build ID: a5a71cea62ac3041006c5e9815ae2317999639ac

Eike Rathke has already laid the basic foundation allowing formulas that use reference by table to be imported and exported.
Comment 9 Xisco Faulí 2019-11-29 13:27:12 UTC
Changing priority back to 'medium' since the number of duplicates is lower than 5
Comment 10 Stéphane Guillou (stragu) 2023-10-30 22:44:19 UTC
As stated before, Err:508 because of range names has been fixed for a while, see bug 85063.

Regarding the remaining issue:
(In reply to Andras Timar from comment #0)
> Opening this file in Calc or creating a table in
> Calc will not display any colors.
... it seems Andreas talks about both adding the feature to Calc (bug 132780) and supporting the formatting that was set by Excel (bug 66377).

Because we have to pick one, I'm marking as duplicate of bug 66377.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 66377 ***
Comment 11 Stéphane Guillou (stragu) 2023-10-30 22:45:27 UTC
(In reply to Stéphane Guillou (stragu) from comment #10)
> ... it seems Andreas...
(Sorry: Andras, not Andreas.)