How to print a section of a SS

users
#1

I went to Format->Print Range--> define.  Failed
Went to Help (when all else fails) read, follow instructions, blank screen (no examples)

Help?,

John

#2

What do you mean by SS? Which component of LibreOffice are you using? What version of LibreOffice are you using?

Dan

#3

Which version? [Defining a print range is where I usually start, but I just realized I have not printed a Calc sheet since LO6.]

#4

Hi list-users,

I have the following question:

I have in column A value either a number, or string in the format <NR>+<NR>, in col B I want to calculate what’s in Col A
e.g.:

      10 10
12+72 84
      33 33
66+72 138

So, I tired the formula =INDIRECT(“=“&A1) but I only get REF!
What am I doing wrong here, and how can I achieve what I want?

#5

In an "office" program, I made the foolish assumption that people would understand that SS means Spread Sheet.  I apologize to those who did not grasp that.

The version of Thunderbird is 13.0 (32 bit).  Again I assumed that the instructions for a common function, that of printing a section of a SS (see reference above) would not change from version to version.  Again, I apologize to those who were confused about the stability of user interfaces.

Humbly,
John

#6

I have the following question:

If, as here, you prepare your question as a reply to a previous message when it is nothing of the sort, it will be lost in the previous thread and may not be seen by possible helpers.

I have in column A value either a number, or string in the format <NR>+<NR>, ...

Nauru? Norwich postcodes? National Rail? Noise reduction?

... in col B I want to calculate what's in Col A
e.g.:
      10 10
12+72 84
      33 33
66+72 138

So, I tired the formula =INDIRECT("="&A1) but I only get REF! What am I doing wrong here, ...

Probably thinking INDIRECT() does something different from what it does.

... and how can I achieve what I want?

First solution: don't enter your data like that in the first place.

I don't think there is any simple method to do what you ask in a general fashion. If, as you suggest, the operator is always "+", you could use
=IF(ISNUMBER(A1);A1;LEFT(A1;FIND("+";A1)-1)+MID(A1;FIND("+";A1)+1;99))
You could make this simpler if you knew that the numbers in the expressions were always of two digits.

I trust this helps.

Brian Barker

#7

Hi John.
What version of Libreoffice are you on.
When you say you want to print a section of a sheet, is that a single section on just one sheet or sections of multiple sheets.

For me on a single sheet, sometimes the print range has some history from previous activity.
I go Format>Print Ranges>Clear to start.
Then I highlight the range to print with the mouse and go Format>Print

Define.

Then I go to File>Print Preview to see how many pages that selected range will print on, and if necessary adjust the top -/+ slider or page format to suit my needs.
Steve

#8

I hasn't been mentioned if the OP is printing to PDF, and my bad for never
reporting the bug, but using LibreOffice File>Export as PDF or the Export
Directly as PDF icon causes EVERYTHING on all tabs to print to the PDF no
matter what print range might be specified, no matter if the print ranges
are deleted then selected anew. EVERYTHING gets dumped into a PDF.

Need to be certain the OP isn't using the PDF feature. If they are, that is
the source of the problem.

#9

Thank you Alan and Steve.  I was not printing to a PDF, but that could have been a later nightmare.  Where my mindset was wrong was that I thought that the mousing a section WAS the define.  So I clicked on define, then moused, then had nothing.  I just tried your method Steve and it worked.  My vendor in Canada will receive my limited spreadsheet shortly!

Thank you,
John

#10

Your welcome John.
I was doing exactly what you were doing to start with.
Steve

#11

I hasn't been mentioned if the OP is printing to PDF, and my bad for
never reporting the bug, but using LibreOffice File>Export as PDF or
the Export Directly as PDF icon causes EVERYTHING on all tabs to
print to the PDF no matter what print range might be specified, no
matter if the print ranges are deleted then selected anew. EVERYTHING
gets dumped into a PDF.

I don't think that's a bug. If you select Export as PDF, you are shown
a dialog box that offers a choice of exporting the whole spreadsheet or
a selected region etc. Similarly you can Print to File if you want
another way to print just part of a spreadsheet to a PDF file.

#12

Select the area before issuing the print command (Cntrl/P), and subsequently select “print selected area” in the print dialog should do what you want to do

#13

The documentation thinks it is a bug. Under "Using print ranges", it says:
"You can define which range of cells on a spreadsheet are to be printed or exported to a PDF. The cells on the sheet that are not part of the defined print range are not printed or exported. Also, any sheets without a defined print range are not printed or exported."

Brian Barker

#14

I find it exports to pdf as advertised. If I select and define a range on one of the sheets, just that gets exported but care is needed because different dialogues are involved and they can conflict.

There is the defining of print ranges where if you have defined nothing and go to format > print ranges > edit, you will see that by default the print range of each sheet is defined as 'entire sheet' .  You can, if you think of it, change that on each sheet to 'none'.

If you use export as pdf, the export dialogue again has a range selection possibility : All, Pages, Selection/Selected sheet(s).

I doubt whether many people think of checking  "format > print ranges > edit"  if they have never set a range in the first place.

Philip

#15

The documentation thinks what's a bug, exactly? Alan claimed that if
you try to print as a PDF then everything gets printed, without any
choice. You appear to be stating that the documentation coincides with
reality, which is exactly the ooposite and what I said. Thus what Alan
claimed is a bug is NOT a bug. Or are we somehow at cross purposes?

#16

Good: so you are disagreeing with the original claim (which I did not check). In that case, there's no bug.

Brian Barker

#17

I think you do misunderstand me; perhaps I was a little brief. The original claim was that exporting to PDF takes no account of defined print ranges and exports the entire document. (I didn't check that or experiment with it.) We are not talking about the separate facility, in the print and export dialogues, to print or export the currently selected range, are we? You suggested that it was not a bug: in other words, that you expected export as PDF should disregard defined print ranges, as we were told it did. But the documentation about print ranges makes clear that they are supposed to apply equally to printing and exporting, in other words that exporting to PDF should export only material within any defined print ranges and not other material.

Brian Barker

#18

sORRY TO KEEP BEATIN G THIS HORSE.  i TRIED THE SELECT AN  AREA LAST NIGHT, IT WORKED, BUT iT DID NOT PRINT.  Now it won't print.  I went to setting in the ubuntu menu and sent a test page-it worked fine(cable was plugged in!.  But I can't get anyting to print.  I deleted all of the other sheets in this file, tried again, no printing, I also deleted the part that I didn't want to nbe printed so there was no 'selection', still no printing.  By no printing, I mean that when I click on "print" in the print section of LO calc, nothing happend.  My printer does not respond.  No error showed in LO, like I was printing to a non-existant printer.

Sorry for the caps earlier - not shouting.

John

#19

>>>>It hasn't been mentioned if the OP is printing to PDF, and my bad
>>>>for never reporting the bug, but using LibreOffice File>Export as
>>>>PDF or the Export Directly as PDF icon causes EVERYTHING on all
>>>>tabs to print to the PDF no matter what print range might be
>>>>specified, no matter if the print ranges are deleted then
>>>>selected anew. EVERYTHING gets dumped into a PDF.
>>>
>>>I don't think that's a bug. [...]
>>
>>The documentation thinks it is a bug. Under "Using print ranges",
>>it says: "You can define which range of cells on a spreadsheet are
>>to be printed or exported to a PDF. The cells on the sheet that are
>>not part of the defined print range are not printed or exported.
>>Also, any sheets without a defined print range are not printed or
>>exported."
>
>The documentation thinks what's a bug, exactly? Alan claimed that if
>you try to print as a PDF then everything gets printed, without any
>choice. You appear to be stating that the documentation coincides
>with reality, which is exactly the opposite and what I said. Thus
>what Alan claimed is a bug is NOT a bug. Or are we somehow at cross
>purposes?

I think you do misunderstand me; perhaps I was a little brief. The
original claim was that exporting to PDF takes no account of defined
print ranges and exports the entire document. (I didn't check that or
experiment with it.)

Well that's the absolute basis of the whole conversation, so that's
absolutely the first thing I did!

We are not talking about the separate facility,
in the print and export dialogues, to print or export the currently
selected range, are we?

Don't care. They all behave the same or similar.

You suggested that it was not a bug: in other
words, that you expected export as PDF should disregard defined print
ranges, as we were told it did.

No I suggested it was not a bug and that it did work exactly as
everybody else expected it would and as documented apparently (I didn't
check the documentation :slight_smile: You needed to actually read what I wrote
after that one sentence and try to understand the whole message.

#20

Hi Rob, did you ever get this answered.
You could use something like the below for the cells with a '+' in them.
Assuming below is row 4, vertical bars are cell borders.

25+15|=VALUE(LEFT(A4,FIND("+",A4)-1))+VALUE(RIGHT(A4,LEN(A4)-FIND("+",A4)))|

If you need it to be generic for with/without the + then you could use an IF to check, shown below for row 5.
=IF(ISNUMBER(A5),A5,VALUE(LEFT(A5,FIND("+",A5)-1))+VALUE(RIGHT(A5,LEN(A5)-FIND("+",A5))))

Steve