GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 158170
Implement graph only sheet
Last modified: 2010-04-21 14:59:33 UTC
This is a real turn-off for me at present, as I am discovering Gnuméric (and loving it already :o). At present the graphs are put in the data sheet, "floating" above all the data, looks very cheap and untidy and useless, and also gets in the way when you want to read the data. Graphs should be displayed in a blank sheet, so as not to interfere with the data, and so as to make optimum use of available work space, and just generally look and feel better and much more tidy. I really see only dis-advantages to the current method. If one wants to make a "composition" to show both some data and a graph, then best to use Abiword and insert said graphics and sample cells. But sticking a cramped, un-readable,hence useless, XY graph, lost in the middle of hundreds of thousands of data cells, just doens't make any sense to me at all... :o( At the very least, like in XL, we should have the option to specifiy where we want the graph to be put, data sheet or proper, graphic only sheet. Would it be really that long and difficult to implement ?? Can I dream to see this working in say 6 or 12 months ? :o(
You can already display the graph on another sheet, either when creating the graph, or by cut'n paste it to another sheet. For example: - select data - open graph guru - select another sheet by clicking on the notebook tab at the sheet bottom - Ok - place the graph. What is not implemented yet is graph only sheet, à la XL. I'm changing the title to reflect what is really missing. I'm also setting priority to normal, since there are plenty of urgent things to implement. I'm not even really sure grap only sheets are needed. May be a "Print" item in graph context menu would be sufficient. I guess ability to print full page graph is the main use of graph only sheets.
> What is not implemented yet is graph only sheet, à la XL. Yes, that's it. :-) > I'm not even really sure grap only sheets are needed. He ?! :-O > I guess ability to print full page graph is the main use of graph only sheets. I rarely print graphs, I use graph only sheet simply because this is the only way to display graphs properly ! A resize-able graph object floating over cells jsut doesn't look good, isn't practical, doesn't make efficient use of available work space, etc, etc. To be honnest I am suprised that I even have to argue this point, thought it was common sense... data need cell, graph needs a dedicated sheet. What if data cells where displayed in a cramped crap, floating, resizeable box ? So why would you want that for graphs (or whatever other way of representing the data). As I said it's a real turn off. If this is never implemented,then Gnumeric is not much use sadly, other than making bar graphs from a dozen cells, or other non technical data with an extremely limited number of values, like business/marketing graphs for example. If reall Gnumeric wants to be as good (and not as bad ;o) as XL, then it should implemeent this feature, otherwise it's really not a general purpose spreadsheet, as far as data representation goes anyway, but simply a very chart generator... :o((( Let's not kill Gnuméric scope ! Let's at least gie ve users the option, like in XL. I thought it was up to the user to decide what's best for him, not to the developpers to force people toa dhere to tehir thinking ? :o( I don't mean to be rude at all, just the opposite. It's because I love Gnuméric that I spend so much time writing about it to make it, I feel better. If I didn't love it, I would not bother creating a bugzilla account and spend time discussing the product. As we say over here "Qui aime bien, châtie bien"... This means that for Windows and Excel, I didn' tbother giving my opinion on any forum, I just switched to Linux and that's it, didn't waste time. If people are more involved with Linux stuff it's precisely because they feel they can be heard.... :o) Boy, what a digression. Oaky I will shut up for the next 2 years now, until I get my XL like graph sheet ! ;o) Regards, Vince
It still not clear why you need sheets that can only hold a graph? You can always use a sheet just for a graph, and voila you have a graph only sheet! Perhaps you can explain how a "graph only sheet" differs from a sheet that contains only a graph.
I guess I can answer for Vincent: graph only sheets are good way to efficiently use work space. If you resize gnumeric windows, or work with gnumeric fullscreen on different screen with different resolution, graph use all the available space without requiring user to tweak zoom setting. That's very convenient when working with graphs. Vincent, it's not as if I closed your bug saying we will not implement this feature. I'm only setting priority to normal because it's really, really not urgent. You should keep in mind gnumeric developer team is not huge.
Yeah okay, if there is more critical jobs to be done, I understand. As long as it gets implemented at some point, I will be happy. However I hope the problem with multiple Y axis will be solved, as without it, I simply can't display my data ! :-/ I will try to live with floating graph objects for a while, but please fix the Y axis... BTW, how many developpers are working on Gnuméric, are you all full-time of working evenings and week-ends ? Gnuméric looks such a big program, I always picture 100 high-flying s/w engineers working on it, what's the actual situation then ?.... Vince
There is a handful of people working each a few hours per week on Gnumeric. As far as I know nobody is really doing this as their paid job but on a wekend/evening basis.
We have a cheesy implementation of this already in place for xls import/export. It's nothing more than creating a sheet and hiding the headers and grid. We need to improve it to hide cursors too, and keep the object selected at all times.
Ah great, so we are getting there already ! :o) Yes, make sure the mouse can't selecdt the graph or move it or resize it, make sure the graph automatically expands fully so as to use as much work space as possible.... and that will be it bascially ! :o))) Vince
Fixing summary -- somehting in my setup isn't happy with the non-ascii right there.
*** Bug 338620 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Just a comment on this issue. For me, the advantage of sheet-graphs does not only reside in the fact that the graph expand to the whole gnumeric window, independently of the zoom setting. Another stronger advantage is that you can modifify the GUI objects outside the graph to reflect that we are in a "graph" environment. Imagine for example a dedicated graph toolbar, a dedicated graph menu, a dedicated graph status bar (displaying, e.g. the XY position of the cursor), a direct access to the graph settings (instead of having to go to this painful process of opening a the properties window...), etc. That would make Gnumeric a real graphing application (ala grapher), and not a spreadsheet application with graphs embedded in it. Just my 0.02$
Created attachment 156778 [details] sample file with 3 chart sheets
Created attachment 158720 [details] [review] Proposed patch A big hack, actually. Don't know if it's a so good idea.
Created attachment 158726 [details] [review] Updated patch Previous patch had a trivial bug.
Created attachment 159084 [details] [review] Enhanced patch Fix a compilation warning.
This problem has been fixed in our software repository. The fix will go into the next software release. Thank you for your bug report. Anywan, Frederic's ideas about the UI were not implemented. Only relying upon the graph guru to edit the chart for now.