calc: highlight cells referenced by formula

users
#1

Hi there,
I'm looking for a way to speedup the process of looking
at each cell cells referenced by a formula. Right now I'm
doing this manually, which requires going back and forth
between the formula cell and each of the referenced cells
(which I've to find with my eyes).

Someone on IRC told me there's no built-in support for
highlighting referenced cells and that it'd take a macro
to do that. And suggested to ask here.
While writing this mail I'm thinking it would be even
better not just to highlight but to either allow cycling
over each cell with a keystroke...

So, did anyone implement a macro doing such thing or
a similar one to start from ?

Please include my address to an eventual reply as
I'm not subscribed to the list. Thanks you !

--strk;

#2

I'm looking for a way to speedup the process of looking at each cell cells referenced by a formula. Right now I'm doing this manually, which requires going back and forth
between the formula cell and each of the referenced cells (which I've to find with my eyes). Someone on IRC told me there's no built-in support for highlighting referenced cells and that it'd take a macro to do that.

Do you need just Tools | Detective > | Trace Precedents (or Shift+F7)? This will display the links through which a formula harvests its parameters. There is also Tools | Detective > | Trace Dependents (or Shift+F5) to do the same thing in reverse.

While writing this mail I'm thinking it would be even better not just to highlight but to either allow cycling over each cell with a keystroke...

You could use the arrow keys to move between cells and then Shift+F7 at each cell to have its precedents indicated. You might also wish to experiment with repeating Shift+F7 on the same cell: this appears to mark the precedents of the cell's own precedents. If you start at the end of a calculation, pressing Shift+F7 repeatedly may be a very quick way to show what you need.

I trust this helps.

Brian Barker

#3

And the libreoffice equivalent is here:
https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=63087
which confirms latest version still has the bug.

--strk;

#4

Digging some on the web I found cross-sheet tracing to be still missing:
https://bz.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=44828

BTW, I've also found CTRL-[ doing an interesting thing, except it gets
lost after the first jump (jumps to first precedent).

So it still takes a macro to implement ?

--strk;

#5

That looks promising, thanks !

But when the "Precedents" are in a different sheet (which is my case)
the arrows point to nowhere (are a short 45 degrees arrow starting with
a square and cannot be selected with the mouse).

--strk;