GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 152617
Insert Hyperlink should have text by default
Last modified: 2008-09-13 21:11:55 UTC
If a cell is turned into a hyperlink and it has no text, the link will be invisible. By default, gnumeric should generate a string to illustrate the link. This default text can be left in a selected state (i.e. highlighted) so a user who wishes to change the text can simply type in the same way then can currently. 1) new gnumeric 2) Insert menu -> hyperlink 3) In Type field select "internal link" 4) Click in traget range 5) select Sheet3!A1 6) click ok ==> the link has been made in Sheet1!A1 but is invisble. Ideally we would have added some default text such as "Link to Sheet3!A1". If this text were also left in the highlighted state, a user wishing to name the link after having created it could simply type the new name. In other words, we would not be adding any more work, except in the rare case of users wishing to have blank link cells. These users would simply have to type the delete key. For everyone else, by default the link would appear. --adrian
I agree that we should enter some default text if the cell in question happens to be empty. It would be easy to add a "default_text" item to the cmd_selection_format function. But I am not sure that that would be the right solution (programming wise).
At first I simply thought that the functionality was broken, this is actually a very confusing bug. Personally, I wouldn't go highlighting a default text in the cell when the Hyperlink dialog is closed. Maybe add a field in the Hyperlink dialog itself where you can provide the "text" of the hyperlink as one would do in HTML with the A element (Excel calls this "Text to display:"). Then we would have 2 options: 1. If nothing was specified in the "text" field when the dialog is closed, we could display a question dialog, asking to either use the hyperlink address as the default text, or to leave the cell's value blank for now. 2. Update the "text" field as one types in the "address" field (This is what Excel does). I think that the 2nd option seems to be the best solution, as that would be the easiest from a user-perspective (less clicking).
Much simpler: If there is text in the cell, leave it alone. If there isn't, insert the URL.
"leave it alone" is a misnomer since the text will become underlined and shaded in blue to indicate a hyperlink. "insert the URL" is what for a gnumeric cell? file:///path/to/file/filename.gnumeric??sheetNrowcol. --adrian
*** Bug 316975 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 519282 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Wow. We're really operating on the time scale of ice ages here.
So, then let's have the ice age come to an end. Of course this is more complicated than it looks since we need to support undo and setting the hyperlink for whole ranges.
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.