Bug 98270 - Add 'Search in all sheets' option to Find toolbar
Summary: Add 'Search in all sheets' option to Find toolbar
Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
Inherited From OOo
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: needsUXEval
: 149912 153982 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks: Find-Search
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2016-02-29 12:11 UTC by allcoms
Modified: 2023-09-11 22:26 UTC (History)
8 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
see this image (136.82 KB, image/png)
2020-09-21 09:20 UTC, BogdanB
Details

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Description allcoms 2016-02-29 12:11:04 UTC
I am normally working with spreadsheets that contain more than one sheet so when I'm searching within a spreadsheet using Calc the standard search dialogue (CTRL+F) is insufficient so I have to:

* Hit Ctrl+H to open Find + Replace
* Click on the 'Other options' drop-down
* Tick 'Search in all sheets'
* Then I can search for the string I'm looking for

That seems like too long a procedure for such a common task so I would like to see 'Search in all sheets' added as an option to the regular search dialogue options (alongside the existing 'Find all', 'Match case' and 'Search Formatted Display String' options) and preferably enable by default too.

Thanks!
Comment 1 Joel Madero 2016-03-02 20:28:56 UTC
Requesting UX input.
Comment 2 Yousuf Philips (jay) (retired) 2016-03-02 22:43:33 UTC
Definitely a valid enhancement to the user experience.
Comment 3 GerardF 2016-03-03 08:47:08 UTC
IMHO, all options should be displayed in the main Ctrl+H dialog in the first shot without this "more options" hide/show button.
Comment 4 Yousuf Philips (jay) (retired) 2016-03-03 19:51:43 UTC
(In reply to GerardF from comment #3)
> IMHO, all options should be displayed in the main Ctrl+H dialog in the first
> shot without this "more options" hide/show button.

The more advanced features (e.g. regular expression) and features not commonly changed (e.g. search direction) should be hidden by default from the novice user. Just the same way that we hide more advanced features in the Options dialog in the Expert Configuration dialog.
Comment 5 GerardF 2016-03-03 20:16:47 UTC
(In reply to Yousuf (Jay) Philips from comment #4)

> The more advanced features (e.g. regular expression) and features not
> commonly changed (e.g. search direction) should be hidden by default from
> the novice user.

Most of these options (may be all) are remembered, so I need to click on "more options" each time I hit Ctrl+H to check what options were use last time and still in use.

It is near impossible to use Find & Replace without opening the option dialog.
Comment 6 GerardF 2016-03-03 20:23:14 UTC
See this discussion (about OpenOffice) in the forum :
https://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=106&t=80312

I'm not the only one.

"Eliminate More Options in this dialog. I always have to expand the dialog since it is easy to forget which options might have been preserved from a previous Find & Replace"
Comment 7 Yousuf Philips (jay) (retired) 2016-03-03 21:19:44 UTC
(In reply to GerardF from comment #6)
> See this discussion (about OpenOffice) in the forum :
> https://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=106&t=80312
> 
> I'm not the only one.

Then the correct approach would be that the dialog should remember the state of all options and whether the 'More Options' was open or not.
Comment 8 pbraconnot 2016-03-19 01:57:17 UTC
My first comment here because this bug really is annoying, sorry folks!
Calc is not aimed to beginners anyway, so after years using it that's my list of features for searching in Calc:


1- The "More options" button should be removed
2- Search in all sheets should be default for all searches.
3- Easy search to have a checkbox to limit search to one sheet globally saved

Maybe the best way is to put all these options in the preferences panel so the "More options" options would be saved globally. 

Today advanced search falls back to one sheet after quit/reopen the program, so it's really easy to forget your options. If Libreoffice was open before then you already changed the options, but if not, you have to change it again.
Comment 9 Yousuf Philips (jay) (retired) 2016-03-19 14:53:37 UTC
(In reply to pbraconnot from comment #8)
> Calc is not aimed to beginners anyway, so after years using it that's my
> list of features for searching in Calc:

Calc is aimed at whomever wants to use a spreadsheet app, beginner or advanced user, just like any of the other apps in LibreOffice.

> 1- The "More options" button should be removed

Cant say that i agree with this, as showing all the options would make the dialog too large.

> 2- Search in all sheets should be default for all searches.

Likely a good default both in the toolbar and dialog.

> 3- Easy search to have a checkbox to limit search to one sheet globally saved

Yes if it could be made globally saved, that would likely be a good option.

> Maybe the best way is to put all these options in the preferences panel so
> the "More options" options would be saved globally. 
> 
> Today advanced search falls back to one sheet after quit/reopen the program,
> so it's really easy to forget your options. If Libreoffice was open before
> then you already changed the options, but if not, you have to change it
> again.

I'd suggest you submit these suggestions as a new enhancement bug report, as we only tackle one issue per bug.
Comment 10 Timur 2016-04-26 18:03:06 UTC
Bug 98539 has "All sheets" fixed in compact Find & Replace dialog for LO 5.2. 
"Other options" state should be in Bug 98544.
Comment 11 Cor Nouws 2016-09-25 19:22:40 UTC
(In reply to Timur from comment #10)
> Bug 98539 has "All sheets" fixed in compact Find & Replace dialog for LO
> 5.2.

An improvement indeed.
 
> "Other options" state should be in Bug 98544.

And then still there are more discussion about the behavior.
Comment 12 BogdanB 2020-09-21 09:19:21 UTC
Now in 7.0.1 it's easier with Ctrl+H. Just a tickbox and done.
I don't consider this option need to be in Find Toolbar.

Version: 7.0.1.2
Build ID: 7cbcfc562f6eb6708b5ff7d7397325de9e764452
CPU threads: 4; OS: Linux 5.4; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: en-US (ro_RO.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded
Comment 13 BogdanB 2020-09-21 09:20:06 UTC
Created attachment 165713 [details]
see this image
Comment 14 Heiko Tietze 2022-07-11 08:18:07 UTC
*** Bug 149912 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 15 Heiko Tietze 2022-07-11 08:20:48 UTC
Since the UX input was requested at the duplicate ticket let's discuss here.

I'm against "[ ] All Sheets" because a) it adds complexity to the simple quick find toolbar, and b) showing results across different sheets is confusing. But no strong objection.
Comment 16 ralf.krapf 2022-07-11 15:11:49 UTC
>>Heiko wrote: I assume Find Next jumps to the first occurrence at the next
sheet.

Yes, that's exactly how it should work!
Comment 17 ralf.krapf 2022-07-11 15:13:47 UTC
As an answer from here:
https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=149912#c3
Comment 18 Heiko Tietze 2022-08-01 08:18:39 UTC
We discussed this topic in the design meeting.

Automatically switching is bad, so we would have to either ask "Do you want to continue on the next sheet" or have an option. The checkbox option clutters the simple quick find bar (maybe not itself but we try by all means to keep this toolbar simple). And the question interrupts the workflow and calls for a "Do not show again" option.

Since it also somehow mixes the behavior and running a) a full search per Find & Replace is simple and b) a macro could do the trick of searching within all sheets we concluded to not implement this enhancement.
Comment 19 Buovjaga 2023-03-05 11:47:52 UTC
*** Bug 153982 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 20 Jeff Fortin Tam 2023-09-11 22:26:04 UTC
Just for the record if other users like me are looking for a solution to this and wondering "what next?": bug #58676 could at least make the "Find & Replace" dialog less frustrating to use for this.