GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 640701
Validation Tool List
Last modified: 2011-02-16 08:02:13 UTC
Gnumeric handles validation differently to Open/Libreoffice or Microsoft Office. It is also not possible to add a List of different criterias without referencing other cells. E.g.: Look at the attached simple spreadsheet document. I added a dropdown-list in $A$1 with the validition tool of openoffice.org-calc. The List (as entered in the Validation Tool List option) consists of 1,2,3. Opened in Gnumeric it forgets about 2 and 3 and deletes the dropdown-list and the whole validation If I save the same file in openoffice.org-calc as .xls it ignores the other values (2,3) too, but still throws an error, if I enter something different than "1".
Created attachment 179419 [details] Validation, created by openoffice.org-3.3.0
Currently we do not import (or export) any validation information in ODF files. (These "OpenOffice files" claim to be ODF files of a not yet existing version.) I believe the import issue from XLS is bug #331983. You are incorrect in saying that "It is also not possible to add a List of different criterias without referencing other cells." If you want to restrict a cell to 1,2,3 you can select validation by a list and specify the source as {1;2;3}.
Thanks, my questions are answered. :-) I'm just saying I couldn't find any documentation or help for the validation list (and think it's not really intuitive with {1;2;3} ). Just one last question: Will the validation stuff eventually be implemented for ODF?
While {1;2;3} may not be "intuitive", you can use any Gnumeric formula that returns an array. So {1;2;3} is just the special case of a fixed inline array as you would also use in any sheet formula. You are apparently the first person asking for ODF validation import/export support. It will surely be implement sometime (otherwise I would have closed this report as WONTFIX). I don't even consider this an enhancement request but a real bug.
I have just implemented list validation import from ODF files. That will be in 1.10.14.
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.