Re: [office] Data Grid Size element proposal

[Eike Rathke <erack@sun.com>]

Hi Andreas,

On Tuesday, 2008-12-02 10:05:15 -0700, Andreas J. Guelzow wrote:

> > > > OO.o 3.0 since it has more columns.
> > > > 
> > > > A1..E1 contain 1..5.
> > > > AMJ is the last colume.
> > > > A2 is set to "=AMJ1" and copied to B2..E2.
> > > > 
> > > > A1 = 0 and B1..E1 say "#REF!" and are set to "=REF!".
> > > 
> > > So the users asked OOo to copy a formula and OOo silently changes the
> > > formula into an error string _without_alerting the user?
> > 
> > The result displays #REF!, which is a standard error displayed for
> > references errors.
> 
> My copy of OOo 3.0 does _not_ display #REF! just as a result but in fact
> it changes the formula entered to "=REF!". (If it just showed the result
> of #REF! I could go in and modify the reference. This way I cannot.)

Almost true. To be exact, the part that lead to the reference error is
set to #REF!, here the column, so it is =#REF!1  (row 1 is kept intact).
The behavior is similar to what Excel does, just that Excel does not
distinguish sheet/col/row parts and unconditionally modifies the formula
to =#REF! instead.

> Note that OpenFormula draft requires that if the reference is beyond the
> capabilities of the application the reference should evaluate to REF! I
> ma wondering what OOo would do would it encounter this in a file and the
> file is being saved without user modification. Would it change the
> formula?

No, the formula would be saved "as is", including the '#REF!'.

> Since the OpenFormula draft refers to capabilities (and not gridsize) I
> consider Gnumeric compliant with the draft in this respect (using a
> toroidal grid) while OOo  is not.

I don't get that. Why would Gnumeric be compliant with the draft when
wrapping references while copying cells? And why would OOo not be
compliant when it does not?

  Eike

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