Bug 39936

Also you can open the Toolbar Insert Cells. (Menu/View/Toolbars/Insert cells).

No Master Bug, limitation has always been that way.
No Regression

[This is an automated message.]
This bug was filed before the changes to Bugzilla on 2011-10-16. Thus it
started right out as NEW without ever being explicitly confirmed. The bug is
changed to state NEEDINFO for this reason. To move this bug from NEEDINFO back
to NEW please check if the bug still persists with the 3.5.0 beta1 or beta2 prereleases.
Details on how to test the 3.5.0 beta1 can be found at:
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/QA/BugHunting_Session_3.5.0.-1

more detail on this bulk operation: http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/RFC-Operation-Spamzilla-tp3607474p3607474.html

Dear bug submitter!

Due to the fact, that there are a lot of NEEDINFO bugs with no answer within the last six months, we close all of these bugs.

To keep this message short, more infos are available @ https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/QA/NeedinfoClosure#Statement

Thanks for understanding and hopefully updating your bug, so that everything is prepared for developers to fix your problem.

Yours!

Florian

Dear bug submitter!

Due to the fact, that there are a lot of NEEDINFO bugs with no answer within the last six months, we close all of these bugs.

To keep this message short, more infos are available @ https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/QA/NeedinfoClosure#Statement

Thanks for understanding and hopefully updating your bug, so that everything is prepared for developers to fix your problem.

Yours!

Florian

Dear bug submitter!

Due to the fact, that there are a lot of NEEDINFO bugs with no answer within the last six months, we close all of these bugs.

To keep this message short, more infos are available @ https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/QA/NeedinfoClosure#Statement

Thanks for understanding and hopefully updating your bug, so that everything is prepared for developers to fix your problem.

Yours!

Florian

Dear bug submitter!

Due to the fact, that there are a lot of NEEDINFO bugs with no answer within the last six months, we close all of these bugs.

To keep this message short, more infos are available @ https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/QA/NeedinfoClosure#Statement

Thanks for understanding and hopefully updating your bug, so that everything is prepared for developers to fix your problem.

Yours!

Florian

Reopening because it is RFE
in 3.6.1 not implemented yet
In Excel 2003 is context menu item which opens dialog with variants:
- Insert with shifting columns rightwards
- Insert with shifting rows downwards
- Insert column
- Insert row

In Calc the same dialog resides in Insert->Cells and assigned on Ctrl-+ by default.
IMHO it is naturally to add it to context menu, because context menu is almost empty.

Confirming, marking as NEW and prioritizing as Enhancement - Medium. Probably useful for quite a few people, also easy to implement

Thanks for reporting

I am not sure, but isn't this the same request like bug 50104 ?

Yes the other one should be marked a duplicate of this one (this one is older plus is a bit clearer). I'll go ahead and mark as a duplicate, thanks for catching this

*** Bug 50104 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Thank you, Sasha and Joel, for re-opening this.  For whatever reason, I missed Florian's posts in my email.  I am now using LO 3.5.6.2 on Win7 (as well as Excel 2003 - depending on the project).  I really hope that this enhancement can be accomplished soon.

The questions are:
1) What existing(?) function?
   (I do not know anything like "Insert Cut Cells")

do we want to 

2) add to what to what context menu? 
   (Why is "Paste" in context menu not enough? For me that works fine, I can
   select whether I want to overwrite or to shift existing contents)

Currently we have a "Make it look like in EXCEL" request, too imprecise for an easy fix and for NEW due to <https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/BugTriage#Process>  item 5

To be honest: I don't understand this request. Can somebody contribute a "real life problem" with a sample document and clear description what should be improved?

@Rainer: In the context menu, how can you "select whether I want to overwrite or to shift existing contents"? I have no option there in LibreOffice, but only "paste" which overwrites the content.

Created attachment 68612 [details]
Hwo To Presentation

What's so bad with proceeding as shown in the HoTo?

@Gerry:
I asked for a real life example and got a "I don't know how to" comment ...

Created attachment 68644 [details]
Paste Special not available on Linux

Dear Rainer,

I think I now understand the confusion. Is it possible that this "Paste Special" feature is simply not available on Linux?

Please see the attached screenshot. LibreOffice only offers "Paste", but nothing else. Also, if I try to choose Edit -> Paste Special simply nothing happens.

Detailled description of the screenshot: I had following sheet:
a a 

System: Ubuntu 11.10, LibreOffice 3.5.4.2 Build ID: 350m1(Build:2) PPA.

I also never get this prompt asking me if I want to shift cells. I only get the overwrite prompt which warns me that I'm about to overwrite stuff. 

Bodhi Linux
LibO:3.6.1.2

Sorry, I accidentally hit the Save button:

This is how my example sheet looked like:
a	a	a	a	a	a
a	a	a	a	a	a
a	a	a	a	a	a
c	c	c	c	c	c
c	c	c	c	c	c
c	c	c	c	c	c
b	b	b	b	b	b
b	b	b	b	b	b
b	b	b	b	b	b

However, I wanted to insert the "b"-rows before the "c"-rows so that the sheet looks like this:
a	a	a	a	a	a
a	a	a	a	a	a
a	a	a	a	a	a
b	b	b	b	b	b
b	b	b	b	b	b
b	b	b	b	b	b
c	c	c	c	c	c
c	c	c	c	c	c
c	c	c	c	c	c

In Linx there are only two possibilities to solve this issue:
(1) Mouse and click: Insert manually three empty rows before the "c"-rows and cut&paste the "b"-rows over these created empty rows.
(2) The people-who-search-for-shortcuts-approach: http://help.libreoffice.org/Calc/Moving_Cells_by_Drag-and-Drop To be honest, for very long time I did not know that this feature existed. 

I suggest that this Moving_Cells_by_Drag-and-Drop should be accessible by the context menu.

This still is not NEW, we have several unclear observations.

So I think we should first do some research concerning the unavailable 'Paste Special', what would be a real bug.

For this new situation I should contribute a Step by step instruction for my  Attachment 2012 [details]-10-16 08:15 UTC to avoid any misunderstanding and to narrow down the problem.

Steps how to reproduce with parallel installation of Master "LOdev  3.7.0.0.alpha0+   -  ENGLISH UI / German Locale  [Build ID: 747ecb]"  {tinderbox: @16, pull time 2012-10-08 09:46:32} on German WIN7 Home Premium (64bit) with separate User Profile for Master Branch:

1. Launch LibO
2. Blank New Spreadsheet from LibO Start Center using "New Spreadsheet" Button
3. Type "1" into A1
4. Use Autofill to fill column until A16
6. Select A1:B7 using mouse
5. Use Autofill to fill rows A1:A16 until  column D as shown in screenshots
8. Right click B7
   > Context menu appears
9. 'Copy' 
10. Click C11
11. rigt Click C11
    > Context menu appears
12. Click 'Paste Special' in context menu
    Dialog appears  as shown in "How To Presentation"

I also can reproduce that correct behavior on Ubuntu 12.04 (VirtualBox) with LibO 3.5.4.2.


Now an other case what might be related to garrys screenshot.
Gerry's screen shot shows a completely different situation, he selected a complete row(?) and right clicked on a row header(!). As the name "context menu" says the contents of that menu is context sensitive and so we have to investigate every context separately.

I can't reproduce Gerry's observation with a.m. Ubuntu LibO and a proceeding a little different from Gerris proceeding:

11. Launch LibO Spreas sheet from Application selector
12. do nothing
13. Type "1" into A1
14. Use Autofill to fill column until A16
16. Select A1:B7 using mouse
15. Use Autofill to fill rows A1:A16 until  column D as shown in screenshots
16. Click on Page Heading "7"
    > Row becomes selected
17. Right Click on Page Heading 7
18. In context menu click 'Copy'
19. Right Click on Page Heading 7
20. In context menu click 'Paste Special'
    Dialog appears  as shown in "How To Presentation"
21. Paste special with "Shift Cells down" 
    will work as expected, shifts rows including selecte one down
     and pastes clipboard to so created empty row


I CAN  reproduce Gerry's observation with a.m. Ubuntu LibO and a proceeding similar to what might have been Gerry's. I did not try to follow exactly  Gerry's proceeding, because screenshot seems to show that He copied empty cells A12:F20, and "Paste Nothing" seems not to be a very interesting case

31. Launch LibO Spreas sheet from Application selector
32. do nothing
33. Type "1" into A1
34. Use Autofill to fill column until A16
36. Select A1:B7 using mouse
35. Use Autofill to fill rows A1:A16 until  column D as shown in screenshots
36. Select C13:D16 using Mouse
    > Range becomes highlighted
37. Right Click D16
38. In context menu click 'Copy'
39. Right Click on Page Heading 7
    Context menu WITHOUT paste special appears
That looks like bug in context menu, BUT althoug Paste special exists and seem active in menu 'Edit', it will do nothing.

WIN LibO 3.5.2 won't even offer a paste function in Context menu for this case, Master 3.7.0 works fine, offers Paste special and shifts cells

But now I understand that I was wrong concerning Gerry's intentions, I believe He wanted to cut and paste, and screenshot shows cut contents? 

New test 

41. Create spreadsheet as whon in Gerry's ASCII art
42. Select all "b" (but not the complete rows)
43. rightclick last "b" (bottom right)
44. click 'Cut' in contxt menu
    all "b" disappear
45. Click row heading of first "c" row (what, BTW, is wrong, a paste will fill
    all the clumns of the row(s) with "b" and not only as many columns as 
    were filled with "b" in step 42
46. right click row heading of first "c" row
    Indeed, Context menu does not contain paste special.
Menu 'Edit -> Paste special' here shows the same problem as described after step 39, does not work.
Paste from context menu will work as expected, overwrite all "c" and fill lines completely until end with "b"
WIN LibO 3.5.6.2 in step 46 does not offer a paste at all
    
Results in step 46 with parallel installation of Master "LOdev  3.7.0.0.alpha0+:
Paste Special will be offered, dialog only allows "don't shift" and "shift right", I can't understand why "shift down is not allowed", and "shift right" is nonsense, can not be done, I will submit a separate bug for this.  'Don't shift' and 'Shift Right' work fine.
Menu 'Edit -> Paste Special' works the same way as context menu.
Same results with LibO 3.6.3.1

So the question for now is:
Can you confirm that the "Step 46 problem" is fixed for LibO 3.6.3.1 and 3.7.0 under Linux (as i see it for WIN)?

Please excuse me for long comment, but I think it's necessary to figure out what exactly the remaining problem is.

It appears that because Gerry had a different problem, and because Rainer could not understand (?) my original request, that this "bug report" has now been diverted to deal with something else.

Now I am confused.  

Unless someone with authority restores the original focus of this request, then I guess I'll take my original enhancement request and create a new bug report.

Rainer, I think you got to the root of the problem.

From my understanding user is asking for us to include a separate paste option that is for "don't overwrite" similar to how Excel does it. Paste special isn't intuitive for a user to think of when they are pasting something (this usually is for pasting only numbers, or only formats, etc...). Excel has an option called "insert copied cells", where this is "paste while shifting" and then a regular paste which is "overwrite"

This is when we select a column or row to cut and then paste somewhere else

If I'm understanding this correct, I still see it as a valid request even if it the functionality is already available by going to paste-special

@Tim - don't open a new bug, Rainer is one of our leading QA people ;) Just need to figure out the exact request, let us know if I was correct in my summary above

Thank you, Joel, and yes, what you said is accurate.

To try and be more detailed and easier to understand:

In Excel, when you point to a cell, range, row, or column and right-click for the context menu, you normally see "Insert" as one of the options.  Choosing that will insert a blank row, column, or cell as appropriate, moving the existing existing data down or to the right.

However, when you choose to "cut" or "copy" a cell, range, row(s), or column(s), and then right-click on a destination cell, range, row, or column, THEN instead of "Insert", you see "Insert Cut Cells" (or "Insert Copy Cells").

Choosing "Insert Cut Cells" will delete the source cell, range, row(s), or column(s) from its original location and insert it into the destination location.  All cells between the original and the destination locations will move to make room for the source cells at the destination and to fill the gap created at the original location.

Choosing "Insert Copied Cells" will work similarly without deleting the source cells.  If it's rows being copied, the existing row at the destination gets moved down; if columns, the existing column at the destination is moved to the right.  If it's a cell or range being copied, you are asked whether to move existing cells down or to the right.

That is what I would like to see in LO.

Rainer I'd like to mark this as NEW again, can you confirm that this is a valid request? Basically just to add the option inside of the dialog that comes up upon right click instead of having to go to paste special. 

What it looks like in excel:

http://imgsrv.worldstart.com/mso-images/insert-copied-cells.gif

To be honest, I lost overview here. What do you think about closing this bug here, to open new separate bugs concerning the fond bugs and valid enhancement requests (if appropriate, with links to relevant comments in this Bug)?

Rainer - I prefer just editing the title here and marking as NEW. I think all the other stuff said, if someone else wants to open separate bugs that's fine but the root of this particular enhancement request is "Insert -> Insert Copied Cells..." which I think is completely valid.

Marking as such, Rainer, hope this works out :)

*** Bug 55544 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

I'm not sure what's so difficult about this bug. LibreCalc just needs to implement the "Insert cut cells" context menu option from Excel.

Here's a screencast of a "real life problem": http://screencast.com/t/S5jtL4bz

(by the way, a screencast is worth a thousand words)

Well the code is there for anyone to poke at - feel free to do it if it's easy to do.

Our devs are working on some serious bugs -- some of which take days of experienced developer time and are critical for everyone, not just a convenient enhancement.

Another option is to of course pay someone to poke at the code - again it's all out there free and ready to be hacked

(In reply to comment #28)
> I'm not sure what's so difficult about this bug. LibreCalc just needs to
> implement the "Insert cut cells" context menu option from Excel.
> 
> Here's a screencast of a "real life problem":
> http://screencast.com/t/S5jtL4bz
> 
> (by the way, a screencast is worth a thousand words)

the screencast is very useful to understand what the enhancement request is about.
I agree that doing the same thing in Excel is much easier.

after saying that, I agree with Joel, if you have coding skills try doing it yourself... if you don't have, make a donation to LibO or hire a developer...

it worked for me..
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=48729#c4

*** Bug 65841 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

This would be a nice addition to Calc's functionality. As a spreadsheet user this is one function that I use on a daily basis. 

I always assumed this was asking too much from Calc. From the comments below it seems to be an Easy Hack... Can't it be included in some GSOC task?

In order to limit the confusion between ProposedEasyHack and EasyHack and to make queries much easier we are changing ProposedEasyHack to NeedsDevEval.

Thank you and apologies for the noise

I was just pointed to this bug after *years* of minor frustration at having to do the - insert new target row/columns, cut source row/columns, paste to the new blank target row/columns, delete original source columns - dance, I finally decided to ask for help on the users list, and after a short time, discovered that I had been totally missing BOTH the 'Paste Special' method, and much better, the ability to MOVE rows and columns using drag-n-drop, just as you can groups of selected cells (which I already knew about, and used a lot).

So, here are some points I'd like to make...

1. Anyone coming from Excel trying out Libreoffice (or Openoffice), who encounters this issue, will definitely declare this a problem, the severity determined by how often they use it - the more they use the Excel feature, the more serious the problem will appear to them.

2. The Help text that describes moving cells, does not mention anywhere that this also applies to entire rows and columns.

The Help documentation definitely needs to be updated. I will file a bug/enhancement for that in a bit, along with some suggested new text.

It simply never occurred to me to click (grab) down in the CONTENT after selecting a row or column. I must say it was a major revelation, followed by wailing and gnashing of teeth at the many years I have missed something so blatantly obvious (hindsight and all), floundering with the above roundabout way.

And since I, a SysAdmin, been doing I.T. related stuff, including end-user support for things like this and who considers himself very technically inclined, never figured this out myself using the Help or Google, and only did so after asking on the list (admittedly I should have done that years ago, but the fact is I didn't do this dance all that often, which is why I termed it a source of 'minor frustration' for me)), I venture to guess that most others would never discover the drag-n-drop method (which indeed is very cool!), and would be just one more potential user who tried Libreoffice and left in frustration.

I'm not saying Libreoffice should try to emulate every single Excel feature, but the ones that are very useful, and may not be too much work, should absolutely be considered.

3. The 'Paste Special' still leaves the source row/columns in place.

I consider this a bug. If you CUT an entire row/column, it should CUT the entire row/column, not just the content in the cells in the row/column.

Does anyone know if there is already a bug open for that? If not I'll open one later, when I enter the bug for updating the documentation.

4. I really like the new (to me) graphical drag-n-drop method, but for most cases I think the Excel way is quicker and what I'd prefer to use - just select the row/columns you want to move, right-click > Cut[Copy], then "right-click > Insert Cut[Copied] Row(s)[Column(s)" on the row/column header above/to-the-left-of which you want to insert the Cut[Copied] row/columns.

Note: Excel options are labeled 'Insert Cut[Copied] Cells', regardless of if you cut/copied a group of cells, or entire row/columns.

I think this is wrong. Libreoffice, if this is implemented, should distinguish between 'cells', and entire row/columns. If the user cut just a group of selected cells within a sheet, then the choice should say 'Cells', but if they selected entire row/columns, then the choice should reflect that as 'Rows' (or 'Columns').

I think if Libreoffice implemented both ways, and documented these properly, it would be yet another way that it can be considered superior to MSO...

Documentation enhancement bug 75609 opened...