GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 122175
Nicer method to enter &[...] markers in headers/footers needed
Last modified: 2007-11-12 02:37:29 UTC
Headers and footers can be composed of text or fields. Fields are placeholders for values which will be substituted when the worksheet is printed such as the sheet name, the page number and the current date. Currently, the combo box and preview pane on the "Headers and Footers"* tab of the "Print Setup" dialog show substituted field values. Choosing "Customize header" or "Customize footer" from the combo box brings up a dialog with the option to manually type in text or fields. In this case fields are meant to be entered in the form &[fieldname]. However, this is never mentioned anywhere. This could be made easier with an explicit list of available fields. In addition to the inconsistency of allowing a user to make quick selections of header/footer combinations using substituted field forms and customized header/footer values using fields of the form &[fieldname], the substituted values don't correspond to expected behaviour. This is especially true of the &[sheet] field which previews as "Sheet 1" irregardless of the current sheet's name. I suggest that the combo box selection shows the field values where appropriate and that the preview pane show actual values (ie. with the correct sheet name). The customize dialog should have some means to automatically enter fields (and thereby show all possible fields). Additionally, it should have the preview pane in it as well. Ideally, commonly used header/footer combinations should be added to the combo box for quick selection in other documents. * Should the tab be called "Header and Footer" since only 1 header and footer are allowed?
'This is especially true of the &[sheet] field which previews as "Sheet 1" regardless of the current sheet's name.' Well, the selected header/footer may in fact be applied to all sheets so using the current sheet's name may also be misleading. --------------------------------------- "Ideally, commonly used header/footer combinations should be added to the combo box for quick selection in other documents." To add them to the combo box, defined your custom headers/footerrs for one document and then save these settings as default. This will make the added custom headers avalable in all future invocations. (We don't add them automatically since this might leak unintended information.) ----------------------------------------- "Should the tab be called "Header and Footer" since only 1 header and footer are allowed?" The tab can be used to set the headers and footers for all sheets.
I believe all issues in the report have been handled except that we need a more convenient entry of the various allowed &[...].
This problem has been fixed in the development version. The fix will be available in the next major software release. Thank you for your bug report.