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Bug 166653 - Improve formula detective/investigator
Improve formula detective/investigator
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Product: Gnumeric
Classification: Applications
Component: GUI
git master
Other All
: Low enhancement
: ---
Assigned To: Jody Goldberg
Jody Goldberg
: 144709 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
 
Reported: 2005-02-08 11:15 UTC by Helmut Wollmersdorfer
Modified: 2010-06-11 20:24 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: ---


Attachments
screenshot of OO to show this feature (111.79 KB, image/png)
2005-02-08 21:36 UTC, Helmut Wollmersdorfer
Details

Description Helmut Wollmersdorfer 2005-02-08 11:15:13 UTC
Sorry, I don't know the correct term for this functionality.

What I mean is the following:

This nice colored rectangels which indicate the related cell-ranges if a formula
is edited in the entry area.

In a formula like
  =sum(A1+A2)
Gnumeric shows only one rectangle, and only if the cursor is near or within the
range parameter. XL and OO show all rectangels independant of cursor position.

Helmut Wollmersdorfer
Comment 1 Andreas J. Guelzow 2005-02-08 17:01:51 UTC
How is showing all rectangles better? In your example the cells are
interchangable, but if they weren't it would be nicer to know which one
corresponds to the current argument.

I definitely prefer the current situation.
Comment 2 Jody Goldberg 2005-02-08 17:36:38 UTC
andreas : in XL the coloured coursors are coupled with syntax highlighting in
the expression, and have the useful property of being draggable/resizeable. 
This gives a user a more visual mechanism for adjusting an expression.
Comment 3 Helmut Wollmersdorfer 2005-02-08 21:36:44 UTC
Created attachment 37207 [details]
screenshot of OO to show this feature

Sometimes a picture (how OO colores syntax and boxes) says more than 1000
words.
Comment 4 Alex Duggan 2005-03-02 04:49:23 UTC
I'd like to add that I've become extremely dependant on this feature for my
excel work.  It gives you a very easy way to check for mistakes in a formula
such as clicking the wrong cells.  This cuts down significantly on the number of
mistakes I make.
Comment 5 Morten Welinder 2005-03-02 14:39:27 UTC
Slightly OT:

> In your example the cells are interchangable[...]

Andreas, this is XL semantics; I hope you don't expect addition to be
commutative or anything sane like that!
Comment 6 Andreas J. Guelzow 2005-03-04 15:46:36 UTC
oh boy, colour coding. I guess the accessibilty people would have a field day
with this one, especially since with the theming available the colours would
need to be adjusted not to collide withthe real text colour etc.
Comment 7 Morten Welinder 2005-03-07 19:15:31 UTC
> I guess the accessibilty people would have a field day with this one

I doubt it: the feature is not essential for using Gnumeric.  And even if all
the range markers were the same colour they would still be useful.
Comment 8 Andreas J. Guelzow 2005-03-09 20:16:01 UTC
Which colour would you suggest?
Comment 9 Morten Welinder 2005-05-25 16:33:47 UTC
*** Bug 144709 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 10 Morten Welinder 2005-05-25 16:39:00 UTC
Andreas: I am not suggesting a specific colour.  In fact I would just use a
rainbow of them.  My comment regarding "if all the range markers were the same
colour" was to be understood as "people who cannot tell the colours apart
will still be able to use the feature".
Comment 11 Andreas J. Guelzow 2010-06-11 18:42:23 UTC
We are now showing all rectangles, but only if we are inside a range.
Comment 12 Andreas J. Guelzow 2010-06-11 20:24:07 UTC
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.