How to copy multiple diverse cells in Calc?

klonuo · February 8, 2011, 4:26am

Hi,

first post and hope it's not covered already

An example: I selected multiple diverse cells with Ctrl+Click, then pressed Ctrl+C, expecting that selected cells content would be placed in clipboard.

Unfortunately clipboard contains value from only one cell - the top-most it seems.
Why is this, and is there a way that I can copy data this way?

Thanks

[Win 7 32b U + LO 3.3.0]

Luuk · February 8, 2011, 8:47am

I sure hope that you are doing soemething wrong,
because if this does not work, than LO is.........

So, i tried on my Windows7 64b, and here it works

Question: Do you also have (a version of ) openOffice installed?
(if 'yes', please remove openOffice & reinstall LibreOffice, and see if
problem is solved)

LibreOffice 3.3.0
OOO330m19 (Build:6)
tag libreoffice-3.3.0.4

Stefan_Weigel · February 8, 2011, 10:17am

Hi Luuk,

An example: I selected multiple diverse cells with Ctrl+Click,
then pressed Ctrl+C, expecting that selected cells content
would be placed in clipboard.

Unfortunately clipboard contains value from only one cell - the
top-most it seems. Why is this, and is there a way that I can
copy data this way?

I sure hope that you are doing soemething wrong, because if this
does not work, than LO is.........

So, i tried on my Windows7 64b, and here it works

No folks.

Yes, it does work. And no, it does not work.

Try this:

(1) Click on cell A1 and Ctrl+Click on cell B1. Type Ctrl+C. You
will get a warning, that Calc won´t do it this way.

(2) Click on cell A1 and Ctrl+Click on A3. Type Ctrl+C. Click on
cell C1 and type Ctrl+V. Works fine.

(3) Click on cell A1 and Ctrl+Click on A3. Type Ctrl+C. Open any
simple text editor on your system and type Ctrl+V. You get the
content of A1 only.

(LibreOffice 3.3, Ubuntu 10.10)

Stefan

Luuk · February 8, 2011, 10:55am

Hi Luuk,

An example: I selected multiple diverse cells with Ctrl+Click,
then pressed Ctrl+C, expecting that selected cells content
would be placed in clipboard.

Unfortunately clipboard contains value from only one cell - the
top-most it seems. Why is this, and is there a way that I can
copy data this way?

I sure hope that you are doing soemething wrong, because if this
does not work, than LO is.........

So, i tried on my Windows7 64b, and here it works

No folks.

Yes, it does work. And no, it does not work.

Try this:

(1) Click on cell A1 and Ctrl+Click on cell B1. Type Ctrl+C. You
will get a warning, that Calc won´t do it this way.

no warning here, on Win7 and also not on openSUSE11.1 (same version of LO)
A1:B1 gets selected and copied..

(2) Click on cell A1 and Ctrl+Click on A3. Type Ctrl+C. Click on
cell C1 and type Ctrl+V. Works fine.

This is the 'hard' way to copy the contents from A3 to A2, if i'm
right...

(3) Click on cell A1 and Ctrl+Click on A3. Type Ctrl+C. Open any
simple text editor on your system and type Ctrl+V. You get the
content of A1 only.

This is because when you paste in your texteditor, it looks at the
clipboard for a piece of text, and not for a piece of spreadhsheet.
When you copy an image from somehwere, and try to paste it in your
text-editor, this will not work also..

But when pasting this selection in LO-Writer, i do thing that the
contents of these 2 cells should be pasted, just as it works when
copying/pasting A1:B1

Stefan_Weigel · February 8, 2011, 12:21pm

Hi,

(1) Click on cell A1 and Ctrl+Click on cell B1. Type Ctrl+C. You
will get a warning, that Calc won´t do it this way.

no warning here, on Win7 and also not on openSUSE11.1 (same version of LO)
A1:B1 gets selected and copied..

I am sorry. I meant: A1 and B2. (silly typo!)

Stefan

Luuk · February 8, 2011, 2:07pm

Ok, "This function cannot be used with multiple selections"....

hmmm, this would be a nice 'feature-request'.....

Stefan_Weigel · February 8, 2011, 2:36pm

Hi,

Ok, "This function cannot be used with multiple selections"....

hmmm, this would be a nice 'feature-request'.....

Developer´s comment on this topic:

"Copying multiple selections is not supported in Excel. And in
Quattro Pro I do not see any sensible way to actually use this
selection when copied to clipboard (which is the reason why Excel
and Oo.o do not support it I guess)"

(http://de.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=7357)

Stefan

Scott_Jones · February 8, 2011, 2:36pm

Looks like it will copy and paste multiple selections in the same column but not different columns. And when it does paste the selection any empty cells between the selections are compressed out.

Hi Luuk,

An example: I selected multiple diverse cells with Ctrl+Click,
then pressed Ctrl+C, expecting that selected cells content
would be placed in clipboard.

Unfortunately clipboard contains value from only one cell - the
top-most it seems. Why is this, and is there a way that I can
copy data this way?

I sure hope that you are doing soemething wrong, because if this
does not work, than LO is.........

So, i tried on my Windows7 64b, and here it works

No folks.

Yes, it does work. And no, it does not work.

Try this:

(1) Click on cell A1 and Ctrl+Click on cell B1. Type Ctrl+C. You
will get a warning, that Calc won´t do it this way.

no warning here, on Win7 and also not on openSUSE11.1 (same version of LO)
A1:B1 gets selected and copied..

(2) Click on cell A1 and Ctrl+Click on A3. Type Ctrl+C. Click on
cell C1 and type Ctrl+V. Works fine.

This is the 'hard' way to copy the contents from A3 to A2, if i'm
right...

(3) Click on cell A1 and Ctrl+Click on A3. Type Ctrl+C. Open any
simple text editor on your system and type Ctrl+V. You get the
content of A1 only.

This is because when you paste in your texteditor, it looks at the
clipboard for a piece of text, and not for a piece of spreadhsheet.
When you copy an image from somehwere, and try to paste it in your
text-editor, this will not work also..

But when pasting this selection in LO-Writer, i do thing that the
contents of these 2 cells should be pasted, just as it works when
copying/pasting A1:B1

Scott_Jones · February 8, 2011, 2:39pm

I agree Stefan.

Hi,

Ok, "This function cannot be used with multiple selections"....

hmmm, this would be a nice 'feature-request'.....

Developer´s comment on this topic:

"Copying multiple selections is not supported in Excel. And in
Quattro Pro I do not see any sensible way to actually use this
selection when copied to clipboard (which is the reason why Excel
and Oo.o do not support it I guess)"

(http://de.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=7357)

Stefan

klonuo · February 8, 2011, 2:40pm

Tuesday, February 8, 2011, 11:17:55 AM, Stefan wrote:

(1) Click on cell A1 and Ctrl+Click on cell B1. Type Ctrl+C. You
will get a warning, that Calc won´t do it this way.

(2) Click on cell A1 and Ctrl+Click on A3. Type Ctrl+C. Click on
cell C1 and type Ctrl+V. Works fine.

(3) Click on cell A1 and Ctrl+Click on A3. Type Ctrl+C. Open any
simple text editor on your system and type Ctrl+V. You get the
content of A1 only.

If seems here that if user Ctrl+selects cells in same column or row the operation is "successful", otherwise dialog warning pops.

So, working tip would be that user can Ctrl+select diverse cells (in same column/row) and copy them temporarily in other sheet, then regular select this temp data and copy/paste elsewhere

klonuo · February 8, 2011, 2:40pm

Tuesday, February 8, 2011, 9:47:43 AM, Luuk wrote:

Question: Do you also have (a version of ) openOffice installed?
(if 'yes', please remove openOffice & reinstall LibreOffice, and see if
problem is solved)

Yes, I do have openOffice, but wouldn't removing it for such issue be at least doubtful? Are there other problems that may occur having both installations?

Tuesday, February 8, 2011, 11:55:22 AM, Luuk wrote:

(3) Click on cell A1 and Ctrl+Click on A3. Type Ctrl+C. Open any
simple text editor on your system and type Ctrl+V. You get the
content of A1 only.

This is because when you paste in your texteditor, it looks at the
clipboard for a piece of text, and not for a piece of spreadhsheet.
When you copy an image from somehwere, and try to paste it in your
text-editor, this will not work also..

But when pasting this selection in LO-Writer, i do thing that the
contents of these 2 cells should be pasted, just as it works when
copying/pasting A1:B1

I tried to do the same operation in:

1. openOffice Calc 3.3.0

No problems with pasting data from multiple diverse cells (in same column/row) in regular text editor. Clipboard data seems same like LibreCalc - some star office XML format and various others format objects

2. Corel Calculate (from Home Office) 5.0.38

Can't do Ctrl+select then copy at all (I had it handy so thought to try it)

3. MS Excel 2010

No problems with cells in same row/columns. Clipboard data is available in even more formats - worth mentioning XML spreadsheet and CSV

Finally, it seems interesting to me that this spreadsheet programs can do copy/paste when cells aren't in same column/row. At least I expected Excel to do it, but it can't

And it seems that problem is not in intolerance between openOffice and LibreOffice in same OS, like Stefan replied with same observation

Villeroy · February 8, 2011, 4:51pm

Am 08.02.2011 15:40, Klonuo wrote:

Finally, it seems interesting to me that this spreadsheet programs can do copy/paste when cells aren't in same column/row. At least I expected Excel to do it, but it can't

And it seems that problem is not in intolerance between openOffice and LibreOffice in same OS, like Stefan replied with same observation

Hi,

When you try to solve this by means of a macro which is supposed to work with *any* thinkable range selection you will face some logical problems. Which of the multiple ranges should be considered as anchor when you paste to a single target cell? This is not problem when all ranges share either the same set of rows or columns. Then you have a top-left cell in any case.

Applying a filter is the comfortable way to select disjunct rows sharing the same columns. Apply a filter, copy a rectangle and paste. You get the visible rows only.
Contrary to filtered rows, hidden rows would be included.

Hope this helps,
Andreas Säger