Bug 82404 - CALC: Focus/selected cell does not change to A1 when corner selection button pressed to select whole spreadsheet
Summary: CALC: Focus/selected cell does not change to A1 when corner selection button...
Status: RESOLVED NOTABUG
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
4.3.0.4 release
Hardware: Other All
: medium normal
Assignee: Andreas Heinisch
URL:
Whiteboard: target:26.8.0
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Cell-Selection
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Reported: 2014-08-10 01:33 UTC by Doug
Modified: 2026-06-03 06:39 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


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Description Doug 2014-08-10 01:33:35 UTC
Calc always has a focus box centering on one cell, outlined in black.  When selecting a column or row by pressing the row or column selector, the outline moves to the first row in that column or row.  Select column B, selector moves to B1.  The outlined box is the starting point for paste operations, so its location is important for determining where things are pasted.

When pressing the corner selector button to select whole table (top left corner of spreadsheet), selector box stays where it was and does not move.  That means despite suggesting that the clipboard data should fill whole table, Calc pastes at whatever random location the cursor was *before* the whole table was selected.  That is, if the cursor previously was on G17, after pressing the corner/spreadsheet selector, the table will paste beginning at G17 and not A1.

1.  Copy data into clipboard (I was using LO Base table data)
2.  Open Calc, click middle of spreadsheet somewhere.
3.  Click corner/sheet selector at top left of spreadsheet
4.  Paste data.

Actual result:  the data pasted wherever you previously clicked, not at A1

Expected result:  data should paste beginning to A1.

Cause of problem is non-obvious, which makes it non-trivial.
Comment 1 raal 2014-09-15 15:19:48 UTC
Reproducible with Version: 4.4.0.0.alpha0+
Build ID: e2723d00b77dc1044e2ba599ba93517af34e1ea5
TinderBox: Linux-rpm_deb-x86_64@46-TDF, Branch:master, Time: 2014-09-09_23:17:41. 
When select whole sheet, then previously selected cell is still selected, when select row/colum then first cell is selected.
Should be consistent.
For example Excel do it as requester wants - when select whole sheet, then focus jumps in cell A1.
Comment 2 Doug 2015-03-25 03:07:16 UTC
Apologies for the compound bug report, but in a related point, if one selects data from somewhere in the sheet (like G1:K8), presses ctrl-c, then clicks the corner selector and pastes the clipboard contents (ctrl-p), Calc immediately freezes and does not recover.  LO Version: 4.4.1.2 Build ID: 40m0(Build:2) OpenSuse 13.2.  The cursor also does not move to A1 as set forth in the report.
Comment 3 raal 2015-03-25 09:06:28 UTC
(In reply to Doug from comment #2)
> Apologies for the compound bug report, but in a related point, if one
> selects data from somewhere in the sheet (like G1:K8), presses ctrl-c, then
> clicks the corner selector and pastes the clipboard contents (ctrl-p), Calc
> immediately freezes and does not recover.  LO Version: 4.4.1.2 Build ID:
> 40m0(Build:2) OpenSuse 13.2.  The cursor also does not move to A1 as set
> forth in the report.

Please create new bug report for this issue. Thank you
Comment 4 tommy27 2016-04-16 07:27:46 UTC Comment hidden (noise)
Comment 5 QA Administrators 2017-05-22 13:25:14 UTC Comment hidden (noise, obsolete)
Comment 6 QA Administrators 2019-12-03 14:18:41 UTC Comment hidden (noise)
Comment 7 QA Administrators 2021-12-03 04:31:51 UTC Comment hidden (noise)
Comment 8 QA Administrators 2023-12-04 03:16:25 UTC Comment hidden (noise)
Comment 9 QA Administrators 2025-12-04 03:17:17 UTC Comment hidden (noise)
Comment 10 ady 2026-05-21 19:58:57 UTC
(In reply to Doug from comment #0)

> 3.  Click corner/sheet selector at top left of spreadsheet
> 4.  Paste data.

Step 3 is completely unrequired. Having to deal with this is just a waste of time.

If you intent to Paste, starting on cell A1, just press [CTRL]+[HOME] and then Paste; no selection of cells is needed.
Comment 11 Commit Notification 2026-05-22 05:50:47 UTC
Andreas Heinisch committed a patch related to this issue.
It has been pushed to "master":

https://git.libreoffice.org/core/commit/eb9044babc34572bb670d6a030c64aded9ce8fce

tdf#82404 - Move active cell to A1 when whole sheet is selected

It will be available in 26.8.0.

The patch should be included in the daily builds available at
https://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/daily/ in the next 24-48 hours. More
information about daily builds can be found at:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Testing_Daily_Builds

Affected users are encouraged to test the fix and report feedback.
Comment 12 ady 2026-06-02 02:24:18 UTC
@Andreas,

I regret that in my comment 10 I only spoke mildly about this change, not speaking as forcefully as I should had. In practical terms, this change has no relevant positive outcome, but indeed has negative effects.

If the focus (aka active cell) is located somewhere "in the middle" of the spreadsheet, and you find out that you need to change something on the whole worksheet, and then continue working closer to the same original location, now you have to move back to that location. Before, you could had continue working without having to specifically take note of the active cell.

Previously, if the user actually wanted to move to cell A1, a simple ctrl+home was enough, whether the whole worksheet was previously selected or not.

Now, after this change, the move to A1 is forced, and the user has to go back to the original location, in case the prior work has to continue over the same area of the worksheet.

As I said, this change has no relevant positive effect (as every edition to the entire worksheet was performed exactly the same with or without this patch), but it does have negative ones.

IMO, this change should rather be reverted.
Comment 13 Andreas Heinisch 2026-06-02 05:40:07 UTC
I see your observations and conclusions. I have no strong position about this change. I am in favor around 60% since for CTRL+HOME you need to move your hand from the mousee to the keyboard. I checked two competitor products (Sheets and Excel). Both change to cell A1. Should we ask the design team?
Comment 14 Heiko Tietze 2026-06-02 06:41:34 UTC
I'd rather expect to keep the cell focus on col/row selection than moving to A1 for Select All. My take: NAB/INVALID (if you want to paste at A1 move the focus there first, ie. Ctrl+Home)
Comment 15 Andreas Heinisch 2026-06-02 10:21:36 UTC
205897: Revert "tdf#82404 - Move active cell to A1 when whole sheet is selected" | https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/205897
Comment 16 Commit Notification 2026-06-02 14:56:54 UTC
Andreas Heinisch committed a patch related to this issue.
It has been pushed to "master":

https://git.libreoffice.org/core/commit/fb3c28c1a9f3928c74543a2a83ee3b2bcaa446cc

Revert "tdf#82404 - Move active cell to A1 when whole sheet is selected"

It will be available in 26.8.0.

The patch should be included in the daily builds available at
https://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/daily/ in the next 24-48 hours. More
information about daily builds can be found at:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Testing_Daily_Builds

Affected users are encouraged to test the fix and report feedback.
Comment 17 nobu 2026-06-03 06:36:18 UTC
I wonder how many people actually want to automatically move the current cell to A1 during routine tasks.

Also, Ctrl + Home doesn't always move you to A1.
When rows or columns are frozen, it's actually a fantastic shortcut that moves you to the appropriate position.

Anyway, thank you for marking this report as "NOT A BUG."
Comment 18 Andreas Heinisch 2026-06-03 06:39:32 UTC
The frozen cells case is managed in: Bug 107994 - UI: Make Ctrl+Home move the cursor to the first non-frozen cell in the sheet