Question about Calc and hiding rows

users
#1

My dad is a long time OpenOffice user and today he called me about a
problem he's having with one of his spreadsheets. Apparently, he hides
rows to reduce the amount of information he sees when he's looking at
the spreadsheet.

Today, he needed to change a cell in one of the hidden rows. When he
tried to make a change, he showed the row but wasn't able to change a
cell because something prevented him from making changes. When he
showed the hidden row, he saw an icon for an anchor and green squares
along the perimeter of the selection of the now shown rows.

He sent the spreadsheet to me and when I open it in LibreOffice Calc,
4.2.4.2 on Linux, I see the same behavior he describes. From what I can
tell, it looks like Calc converts the hidden row into an image or
graphic of some kind such that when he tries to change it, he can't
because those rows are now part of an image/graphic or "object" that's
embedded in the file.

Any ideas on what could be going on? He first encountered this with
OpenOffice 4.1.0 and continues to see it with OpenOffice 4.0.1.

Thanks!

Peace...

Tom

#2

I doubt very much that Calc has converted values to a picture of those values. But yes: you very probably do have a graphic or other object in or covering the relevant cells. If you need to modify a cell which appears inaccessible because of an overlaid graphic, there are a number of ways to do this.

o You can type the cell reference into the Name Box and then edit the contents in the Input Line.

o You can (temporarily?) suppress display of the graphic at Tools | Options... | LibreOffice Calc | View | Objects | Objects/Graphics.

o Most easily, you can send the graphic to the background using right-click | Arrange > | To Background. If you do this, you may want to bring it back to the front after you have completed the edit, but you will not be able to select it by simply clicking on it precisely because it is now in the background. One convenient way to select the graphic is to open the Navigator (go to View | Navigator or press F5) and double-click the name of the graphic. You can then use right-click | Arrange > | To Foreground to reset the position.

Of course, if you cannot see the graphic and are not missing anything, it may be that you don't want it and can merely delete it.

I trust this helps.

Brian Barker

#3

Hi :slight_smile:
+1
Also ...
Errr, how are the cells being hidden?!??

Of course it is possible to hide an entire row or column by clicking on the
row/column header (1, 2, 3 etc or A, B, C etc) and then right-click to hide
the entire row/column.

To hide individual cells it might be easier to grab a graphic, drag it onto
the spreadsheet, perhaps right-click again to "Anchor to" - "page" and
resize to fit the cell(s).

It's also probably possible to put a frame over the cells and then have
writing or number in the frame although it might be difficult to then reach
those numbers in calculations in the rest of the spreadsheet because they
wont be recognised as being in a cell.

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#4

Hi :slight_smile:
Also the 4.1.0 was VERY early in that branch's cycle. There have been
numerous updates to fix lots of bugs and make it more stable. So instead
of the 4.1.0 it would be better to try the 4.1.6.

Similarly with the 4.0.1. That 3rd digit shows it had only 1 update (to
fix bugs) since the beginning of it's branch. Better to try the 4.0.6 !

If you really want to only use ones at the very beginning of a branch's
cycle then the 4.3.0 might be a better bet anyway. Personally i would
suggest going to the 4.2.6 to get all the updates without having to deal
with new features that might have caused new problems.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#5

Perhaps you can change the text colour to be the same as the background colour - effectively hiding it.

Then protect the sheet/cells as per this in the help

https://help.libreoffice.org/Calc/Protecting_Cells_from_Changes

#6

Er, the questioner well knows how to hide cells (in the normal way); his problem is not being able to edit them when he shows them again. Or do you believe Calc is magically converting cell contents to images?

Brian Barker

#7

Again, do you think the questioner is trying to hide cells? No, he can do that; he's having difficulty editing cell contents after the hidden cells are shown again.

Brian Barker

#8

No, I can't believe that Calc is magically converting cells contents to images.

Is the cell subject to a formula somewhere else on the sheet?

What happens when you try and delete the object that is symbolised by the anchor and green squares along the perimeter?

#9

Hi :slight_smile:
+1
I think it's more likely that the user has found ingenious and unexpected
ways to hide cells, such deliberately using images.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#10

If the document has been going back and forth between LibreOffice and Apache
OpenOffice (or old OpenOffice.org) it is quite possible that it was
corrupted at some stage (I have a document where this happened...)

If your father has been using OpenOffice only, can he pinpoint a version
where it worked/works correctly? Does he have older copies of the document
(it might have become corrupted at same point in the past...)

In any case, the easiest way to try earlier versions of LibreOffice and
OpenOffice (assuming he is using Windows) is to get Portable versions
http://sourceforge.net/projects/winpenpack/files/X-LibreOffice/releases/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/winpenpack/files/X-ApacheOpenOffice/releases/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/winpenpack/files/X-OpenOffice.org/releases/

Hope this helps...

#11

Hi :slight_smile:
Ahhh, so the hidden columns/rows might well be the only ones corrupted?
That would make it less annoying!
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#12

Thanks for the information and sorry for the delayed response. I'll
give this a try and will report back my findings! :slight_smile:

Peace...

Tom

#13

Hi :slight_smile:
+1
Also ...
Errr, how are the cells being hidden?!??

Of course it is possible to hide an entire row or column by clicking on the
row/column header (1, 2, 3 etc or A, B, C etc) and then right-click to hide
the entire row/column.

This is what my dad does to hide the rows in question. :slight_smile:

Peace...

"The Other" Tom :slight_smile:

#14

Hi :slight_smile:
Also the 4.1.0 was VERY early in that branch's cycle. There have been
numerous updates to fix lots of bugs and make it more stable. So instead
of the 4.1.0 it would be better to try the 4.1.6.

Similarly with the 4.0.1. That 3rd digit shows it had only 1 update (to
fix bugs) since the beginning of it's branch. Better to try the 4.0.6 !

I had him reinstall OpenOffice 4.0.1 because that was the previous
version he used before I upgraded it to 4.1.0.

Thanks!

Peace..

"The Other" Tom

#15

Thanks for the info. Before I got involved, my dad used OpenOffice
exclusively. I had him install version 4.0.1 because that was the
version he had been previously running, before I upgraded to 4.1.0. :slight_smile:

Thanks!

Tom

#16

Hi :slight_smile:
We all get all the mails sent to the mailing list. So we all got all 3
replies. There is a bit of clumsiness about it but 3 mails to the list is
one of the best ways of handling it.

On some other mailing lists, particularly the weekly DW "Readers Comments"
one, i have seen people send a single response and then have different
parts such as

@ Pedro,
Thanks for the info

@ Tom,
my dad did the right thing rather than being too inventive

@ Brian, thanks, will try that. Sorry for the delay

@ all
he was on AOO 4.0.1 until i upgraded him to LO 4.1.0

It kinda works quite well too but many on this mailing list are likely to
be new or else have even more sophisticated methods. I quite like the
simplicity of the above method.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#17

Well, I have an update on this issue. You were 100% correct about an
image covering the cells. Apparently, my dad used a copy/paste function
to update the spreadsheet and pasted data as a bitmap. So, I was able
to guide him through simply deleting the image and his data is editable
as expected.

THANK YOU! :slight_smile:

Peace...

Tom

#18

Hi :slight_smile:
HooooRaaaa! Congrats for finding that!!

It's difficult to deal with such things diplomatically sometimes! Things
that make complete and obvious sense to a whole group of people (and
therefore don't need explaining (in the same way as it's rare to explain to
someone that we breathe air or that the sky is blue unless it's sunset or
when there's a lot of cloud-cover) are completely unheard of by someone
else who might have their own 'obvious' way of doing things. It can be
really frustrating trying to figure out what 'obvious' thing the person has
missed or what thing they have done and not bothered to explain.

So, good work! Nicely handled!
Congrats and regards from
Tom :slight_smile: