GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 497863
Edit/Replace should default to "Range" if selection exists
Last modified: 2010-04-22 19:17:48 UTC
The following was originally reported as http://bugs.debian.org/451641 : Package: gnumeric Version: 1.6.3-6 If I mark/select some cells in gnumeric, then invoke "Edit/Replace...", then in the dialog gnumeric helpfully (and correctly) fills the field "Range" (under "Scope") with the range of cells which I selected. However, under "Scope", the option "Range" is not marked, but the default "Entire Workbook". So just clicking OK will _not_ limit the Search/Replace to the selected cells. If I select something and then invoke a function, my general expectation is that the function should only act on what I selected, if applicable. That is how Copy, Cut, Paste, Fill, Clear, Delete in the Edit menu work. Therefore, if Edit/Replace... is invoked with an active selection, the dialog should default to "Scope=Range", not "Scope=Entire Workbook", since that is probably what the user intended by selecting some cells. If nothing is selected, the currend default of "Scope=Entire Workbook" seems reasonable.
You virtually always have a selection? So invoking search would be default search only in the 1 or 4 or 6 or so cells that happen to be selected? Typically the user would not sort for any "small" selection but on the whole sheet. I don't thik the program can make a reasonably judgement call of whether the selection is big enough so that the user likely wants to search in the selection or small enough that it is just an unrelated selection.
Andreas: agreed. Selection always exists. --> WONTFIX.
In recent versions of Gnumeric, there is _not_ always a selection larger than a single cell - only if you have actually swiped something and then not moved the cursor. It is perfectly reasonable for the software to guess that if the selection is a single cell, then the search/replace option is global, but if more than one cell is selected, the search/replace will act only on the selected area. (It may be considered heresy to mention it, but that is exactly what Excel does, as well as Word, Autocad, and on and on and on, extending the paradigm, even Gimp works this way - but, interestingly, not Open Office or Abiword, nor the lower-end editors notepad and wordpad.) The current "ignore selection" behavior is the largest usability issue I have seen with bringing new users to Gnumeric - an annoyance to the point of being a deal-breaker for many existing Excel users.