Hello,
I am using the latest openoffice calc (2.3) on Ubuntu Gutsy. Using
Crossover, I also have Microsoft Excel installed on the machine.
I had a spreadsheet which was a tabulation of some material properties
(one
column with the name of the material and three columns with three different
properties.
I wanted to sort the entire table on one column. In Openoffice.org
calc, I
selected the column I wanted to sort on and pressed the toolbar sort
ascending button. It worked but it didn't do what I wanted - it just sorted
that column, ignoring the possibility that the data in the corresponding
rows of the other three columns might possibly be related (its a literally
accurate response to my actions on the toolbar, but its useless). I could
not find any way to do what I wanted.
So, just curious to see how Microsoft Excel would handle this situation
(whether it would show some intelligence at all), I exported the ods file
to xls and opened it up in Excel. Did the same. Immediately, a pop up box
opened up asking me if I wanted to expand the selection as it had detected
some data around the column, or just wanted to sort it.
I expanded the selection, and I was done. I wonder if people designing
Openoffice.org Calc have given any thought to such situations ? After all,
when you have a spreadsheet with multiple columns, isn't it even remotely
likely (I would put the likelihood northwards of 99%) that the person
requesting the sort might have related data in other columns ?
By all means, the present behavior of the program should be present as
an
option, but the other behavior is so much more likely to be the one that
the user wants, that it should at least offer the option to do the logical
thing.
An example of the literally correct not being the logically correct,
and a
possible result of lack of real world trials of the code before releasing
it.
I am not bashing Openoffice.org calc as I rely on openoffice programs
90%
of the time when I am not using LaTeX, but one would have thought that a
program that is about 6 years old would have sorted out something as basic
as this with a function that is so common that it is on the main toolbar. I
refuse to believe that I am the first person to encounter this kind of
behavior and report it.
Thanks.
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