Hi Eike,
after a few more trials I can make some additional remarks which may
hopefully clarify better what and why it happens [I'm including all of
my previous post so that you can answer the present one only, in case
you deem so]:
* Ennio-Sr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [120305, 00:13]:
> * Eike Rathke <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [110305, 19:15]:
> > Hi Ennio-Sr,
> >
> > On Wed, Mar 09, 2005 at 21:13:37 +0100, Ennio-Sr wrote:
> >
> > > I've just found out that the named ranges I defined in the table
> > > resulting from the Insert > External Data are useless: when I refer to
> > > them, even in the same sheet ("=Quote.rn_x" or "=Quote.Bx") I get "0"
> > > whatever value is in the referee cell.
> >
This is explained below ...
> > Sounds like the ranges use relative references, and the position where
> > the range was created differs from the position where it is used, and
> > the offset applied to the data cell results in a range with an empty
> > cell. Be careful _where_ you define a range when using relative
> > references.
> >
>
> Hi Eike,
> I'm afraid it seems to be worse than that ;(
> I'm under the impression, as I said in my other post, that whatever you
> are importing is just laid upon a void spreadsheet (like a floating
> bar would) not _inserted_ into the spreadsheet as I thought it would:
> this explains why the numbers do not fit into columns and why
> copy/pasting what appears to be a cell with a number in it yealds always
> zero!
>
What happens, in effect, is that the original web-site html_tables being
inserted is seen by OOo as a one column spreadsheet: copy-pasting from
column A of the ss copies the entire row to destination cell. I didn't
realize that at the beginning as everything seemed so well aligned to
give me the impression of being a multi-columns ss. ;). As the
spreadsheet is originally void, the contents of cells in column A (the
full row) is visible entirely; and of course, typing anything in a cell
in column B reveals the arcane: only the data contained within column A
width will show up (this is the normal behaviour of ss's).
> What I did, step by step:
> 1.) Start OOo-1.1.4
> 2.) Open my test.sxc and switched on sheet2 of the same
> 3.) Insert > External Data: dialog box opens and I put the address in
> the "Url of external data source" space
> Press Enter
> (it takes a few seconds when it works, sometimes it doesn't work)
> 4.) A list of HTML_* appears in the Available Tables/ranges dialog and I
> choose my HTML_tables and click OK
> 5.) The table is shown on top of my sheet2, but it is not 'inserted':
> if I copy-paste whatever cell the result is always zero!
>
> Is this the way it's supposed to work?
>
> I'll be only too glad if you can prove I'm doing something in the wrong
> way ...
>
> ---------
> If I download the same HTML_tables from a browser (Netscape/Opera),
> save it as a .txt and then (from OOo-1.1.4) do:
>
> File > Open, the Text Import dialog box appears showing in the Separator
> options that the file is Tab delimited: in effect the table appears well
> aligned in the bottom pre-view window, but when I go ahead and a new Cal
> sheet appears with the contents of the table I can see that no real
> column separation has occurred, as when I click on a number the whole
> line is selected. This happens also if I choose a different separator.
>
Obviously, I'm selecting Files of Type "Text CSV" as suggested by Help.
If I don't choose Text CSV, the file will be imported in OO-Writer as an
ordinary document, although the data are still aligned.
> It is worth noting that, after experiencing what said above,I tried to
> 'prepare' said .txt file with some text-utils (like sed, tr) and noticed
> that if I search for Tabs nothing changes; if the search/substitution is
> made on single space, the substitution occurs as many times as the
> spaces involved (not always the same ;) ).
>
I'm not an expert to judge whether this occurs as a consequence of how
the web site is organized, or of the kind of treatment (presumably)
reserved to it by the browser downloading it as a .txt file. I can
imagine that the web-site is w$ 'oriented', if this may matter.
Hexedit-ing the downloaded .txt file I can see no Tab chars in it, but
only spaces (char 0x20). [*]
> At the end of all it appears as this particular is baffling OOo
> pretending it is Tab separated and making me lose my head trying to find
> out a solution ;(((
>
The unique solution I can envisage, for the time being, involves a
strong 'treatment' of the original .txt so as to arrive at a '|'
delimited file, which - I verified - would be nicely imported in a news
spreadsheet, wherefrom I can pick up the data I'm interested into.
> Sorry for being so lengthy :-)
Thanks always for your assistance.
Regards,
Ennio.
----------
[*] Note for G.R.Singleton, in case he's following this thread.
Ger, if you deem it useful, I can send you copies of .html and .txt
files, so that you have the whole lot ...
--
[Perche' usare Win$ozz (dico io) se ..."anche uno sciocco sa farlo. \\?//
Fa' qualche cosa di cui non sei capace!" (diceva Henry Miller) ] (�|�)
[Why use Win$ozz (I say) if ... "even a fool can do that. )=(
Do something you aren't good at!" (as Henry Miller used to say) ]
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
