conditional formatting broken?

users
#1

I'm using LO 4.2.1.1, on Kubuntu Linux 13.10

I just noticed that a big spreadsheet which has a number cells with a background whose color depends on the value of integer in the cell is all wrong. I tried resetting - recreating - the conditional formatting. It just doesn't do anything.

The number in the cell is calculated by a formula. I do have autocalculate turned on. Pressing F-9 does not affect the conditional formatting (just a while grab I tried).

Any ideas about what's wrong? Is this a known bug for this version?

t.

#2

Hi :slight_smile:
I thought it wasn't possible to set the back-ground colour according
to a changing value within a cell. I didn't think MS Excel can do it
either. For advanced spreadsheeting-fu i would turn to Gnumeric but i
didn't think that could do it either!

The closest i got was making negative numbers red and that works about
the same in all 3 programs.

So, i hope someone else can help with this!
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#3

On the contrary, it is certainly possible in Calc: a cell's background colour is a property of a cell style, and it's a cell style that is applied by conditional formatting. Unsurprisingly, you can also do it in Excel. As for Gnumeric ...

Brian Barker

#4

Tom

Perhaps a bit more detail would be useful can you give us the steps that you are following.

The steps below would change the font colour of all selected cells that contains the number 0 to the same as the white background, i.e. they become invisible.

     * Select cells to conditionally format
     * Format -> Conditonal Formatting -> Condition

Conditional Formatting dialog appears
     * Change condition 1 to [Cell Value is] [Equal to] [0]
     * Appply style [New Style]

Cell Style dialogue appears
     * Click on Font Effects Tab
     * In [Font Colour] drop down menu selected white
     * Push the [OK] button
Returns to Conditional Formatting dialog
     * Push the [OK] button
Returns to the sheet with selected cells formatted

Alex

#5

Alex,

Thanks for that wonderfully detailed and explicit response. I hope it is useful for others, in the future, who may find it through a search of the forum.

Unfortunately, to my original request for help, Brian Barker responded, but to ME ONLY. I didn't notice this, and responded to him, also backchannel, at which point the matter was resolved, as I reported that my problem had just vanished. I could not easily account for this, but my first speculation was that it was "pilot error".

Now, here's my point: responses to requests for help which are made backchannel are necessarily out of the public eye, which in this case led to Alex's very nice response, days later, to a problem which no longer existed.

So...may I strongly suggest that we keep discussion IN THE COMMUNITY so that all may benefit?

Just makes sense, to me. We come here for group discussion. Why defeat that purpose?

Tom

#6

Hi :slight_smile:
OOops, other Tom, sorry!
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#7

Hi :slight_smile:
Ahh, i cheat.

1. Select the cell, row, column, area or even entire worksheet.
2. Format - Cells - Number (the 1st tab in the pop-up)
3. In "Category" down the left-hand side, click on "Number"
4. tick the box that says "Negative numbers red"

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#8

Hi :slight_smile:
+1
but we all have trouble remembering and getting it right all the time.
There are so many other cases were "Reply all" or "Group reply" feels
wrong or might even be really bad.

This mailing list used to have it so that it would default to the list
and sending off-list (= back-channel) was quite tricky. I too think
it kept the community together a lot more but falling numbers here
could be just due to the increasing number of ways of getting help
with LibreOffice. The AskLO bot might be worth exploring if i ever
get around to it! Also the distro i use most often seems much better
at answering questions about LO too now.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile: