Bug 85989 - Paste Special > Comments should not clear cell contents
Summary: Paste Special > Comments should not clear cell contents
Status: RESOLVED NOTABUG
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
4.1.3.2 release
Hardware: All All
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
: 95196 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2014-11-07 05:20 UTC by klsu
Modified: 2017-10-26 09:03 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments

Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.
Description klsu 2014-11-07 05:20:26 UTC
Steps to reproduce problem:
1. Put any 3 different numbers or other values in 3 adjacent cells.
2. Add a comment comment to one of the cells.
3. Copy the cell with the comment.
4. Select the other two cells.
5. Select Paste Special from the menu or context menu, uncheck everything except Comments and click OK.

Results:
The comments are pasted to the other 2 cells, but the contents of the other two cells are cleared.

Expected results:
The comments should be pasted to the other 2 cells, but the contents of the other two cells should remain unchanged.
Comment 1 klsu 2014-11-07 05:23:57 UTC
I can get the expected results if I check comments and select the operation Add, but if the cells contained formulas, that would not get the desired result.
Comment 2 Timur 2014-11-11 16:40:27 UTC
Seems to work as designed: https://help.libreoffice.org/Common/Paste_Special#When_in_Calc:_Operations
The comment is pasted to the other 2 cells, and the content of the other two cells remain unchanged with the operation Add (both when the result cell contains formula or not).
Comment 3 sophie 2014-11-20 14:36:35 UTC
Hi, the comment is part of the cell content, so it works as expected and you even have a message indicating that the content of the target cells will be overwritten. From what I understand, you would like to be able to past the comment only without the cell content. Could you open an enhancement describing the comportment that you would like to see? Thanks! I'm closing this one - Sophie
Comment 4 klsu 2015-04-02 15:25:03 UTC
Is this is like the intentional bug I reported in which copying a range containing values, dates, text and formulas and pasting only numbers, text or dates over itself cleared all the cells that did not contain the selected content type? I couldn't think of and no-one could give me a valid use for such a behavior. Looking back over almost 30 years of using spreadsheets for engineering and financial work, I cannot think of a single use for a "copy comment" option that would also change or clear the contents of the destination cell. Why check only "Paste Comments", unless that's all you want to paste?

If a cell comment is part of the cell contents, then there is no sense in having paste content (value or formula) and paste comment as separate options of a paste function. Either the option has a bug because it doesn't do what it's supposed to do (copy only the comment), or the option is misnamed (it doesn't just copy the comment) and should be renamed (copy comment and clear contents) or removed as redundant.

If the feature is renamed "Copy Comment & Clear Contents", I might someday submit a request to add Copy Comment...after MOD() and DATE() are fixed. Until then, I can't risk using Libre-Office Calc for real computing (and since I discovered those problems, I have experienced the program randomly closing without warning).
Comment 5 Buovjaga 2015-10-09 17:52:02 UTC
Bug does not meet the criteria for Status 'REOPENED'
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/QA/Bugzilla/Fields/Status/REOPENED#Criteria
Status -> NOTABUG.
Comment 6 m_a_riosv 2015-10-20 23:54:16 UTC
*** Bug 95196 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 7 pb 2017-10-12 21:23:26 UTC
There is something seriously wrong with how moderators call everything an "enhancement."  Yes, fixing a bug is definitely an enhancement.  This bug is a bug.  Please fix it.  Copying a comment should simply copy a comment, and not clobber other stuff.  The comment is orthogonal to the contents of the cell.  Just because that is what it does now does not make it rational or right, no matter how many warnings the user is given.
Comment 8 Buovjaga 2017-10-26 09:03:41 UTC
(In reply to pb from comment #7)
> There is something seriously wrong with how moderators call everything an
> "enhancement."  Yes, fixing a bug is definitely an enhancement.  This bug is
> a bug.  Please fix it.  Copying a comment should simply copy a comment, and
> not clobber other stuff.  The comment is orthogonal to the contents of the
> cell.  Just because that is what it does now does not make it rational or
> right, no matter how many warnings the user is given.

Any problem here is related to the design of the Paste Special dialog and the possible unintuitiveness of the interaction between "Selection" and "Operations".

If you have some ideas on making this interaction more intuitive in the dialog, please open a report describing them.

I just tested this and got the same results as Timur in comment 2, everything works as designed. So once again, please push for a change in the larger design (affecting not just comment pasting), if you so desire.