Long comments in calc?

users
#1

Ahoy:

I am still using Version: 4.4.7.2, so this note may be of no help.

(I am not aware of any “improvements” in later versions that would help me, and I read here of so many regressions, that I have not been tempted to “upgrade”.)

Anyway, in Version: 4.4.7.2, when you select “Insert-Text Box”, you do not immediately get a box, but only an indicator that something has changed, which might appear to you as “nothing”.

The “regular” calc arrow cursor changes to a cross, with an apparent subscript looking something like a curvey-flanged I-beam.

You can use this cursor to draw the outline of the text box, which need not conform to cell boundaries.

Anything you type within those boundaries goes not into the underlying cells, but rather into the text box. Executing a CR exits the “text-box mode”, leaving the text floating.

You cannot make any entry into the underlying cells when the text box boundary is displayed, but you can after exiting, even entering right under “box” text.

Clicking within the now-invisible boundary does not select any cell; instead it brings back the box boundary, handles, &c. The box can be manipulated in the usual ways when its boundary is displayed, including re-sizing and being dragged over pre-existing cell entries.

There is, of course, much more detail to be gleaned, but best by experimentation, not additional tortured prose.

Any help?

mxk

#2

Hi :slight_smile:
It is still usually good to upgrade. I tend to stay on a stable version,
usually after a branch has passed the x.y.3 sub-point version. By then a
branch has usually fixed any teething problems it may have had earlier in
it's cycle. If you think of that third number being a "Service Pack"
number and divide by 3 then i'm kinda following the old wisdom about
waiting for service pack 2 before using the new thing. Of course that
wisdom is much more crucial in the m$ world where it comes from but it
still works out quite well for LibreOffice too.

Each new branch adds tons of features (which i rarely use) and greater
compatibility with MS formats (which are themselves constantly changing in
order to be as incompatible as possible with older versions of MS Office
and with competitors such as us). Sometimes security issues are also dealt
with although it's very rare for LO (or AOO) to have any security issues in
the first place.

So it can be good to upgrade but there is seldom any desperate need to and
anyway it's often best to wait until a new brance has become a little
older.

Regards from
a Tom :slight_smile: