[Libreoffice-ux-advise] Sheet local range names in Navigator

[Christoph Noack]

Hi Markus!

Thanks for your mail ... I quickly had a look at it and got stuck within
the dialog. So the Navigator has to wait a bit :-)

Am Dienstag, den 28.06.2011, 21:28 +0200 schrieb Markus Mohrhard:
> Hello Christoph,
> 
> we added local range names as a new feature for 3.4 and are trying to
> get rid of all bugs for 3.5.

So, where to start? I had a look at the "Define Names" dialog and -
besides the fact that I was able to add some local range names - found
the following issues:
      * broken natural workflow: if an area is selected, and if the
        "Define Names" dialog is opened, and the "Scope" is changed,
        then it drops the "Assigned to" and Name entries --> so if
        people want to add a local range name, they have to enter it
        after opening the dialog
      * the scope dropdown lists "Document (Global)" - so the user has
        to guess that the other items are meant to be "(Local)"
      * The name "Scope" is technically correct (computer science) but
        might be misleading for users. It (I presume this) acts both as
        a filter (to filter the name selection) and a selector (create
        global / local ranges).
      * the naming "Assigned to" is now affected as well - since it
        might also refer to the table the range is defined in (but I'm
        not a native English speaker, so I might simply not know ...)
      * the new item "Scope" uses different grouping and is not aligned
        with the other controls in the dialog
      * Technical question: Is it intended that I can create a local
        range (e.g. on Sheet1) by referring to another table (e.g.
        Sheet3)?

I think most of the stuff can be revised easily ... I just don't know
how ;-) I'm still thinking about it and had a look how recent versions
of MSO handle that. A bit different, so to say. But, they use the term
"Scope" - a bit surprising to me.

Is there any description available (non-code) that summarizes how our
new dialog is intended to work? Maybe I just stumbled across weird bugs,
so I don't know what's intended and what not.

Would be great if you could shed some light on it! After knowing more,
it should be easy to discuss the Navigator issue.

Have nice evening,
Christoph


> 2011/6/28 Christoph Noack <christoph at dogmatux.com>
>         Hi Markus!
>         
>         Interesting question, I wasn't even aware that Calc is able to
>         handle
>         local range names ...
>         
>         
>         I know that local ranges exist in Excel, but I don't know how
>         to assign
>         these names via the UI. So before I can provide some proposal
>         where to
>         put these names in the Navigator, could you please provide a
>         short
>         step-by-step proposal how to create them? Neither the
>         descriptions in
>         the bug reports, nor the LibO documentation seem to elaborate
>         on that.
> 
> You can produce local range names like global ones.
> Insert->Names>Define and select then a sheet name instead of global.
> 
> What I already fixed in master around local range names:
>  Insert->Names->Insert shows local range names and insert all will
> insert them
>  Local range names will be used instead of global range names with the
> same name(should be in 3.4.1 too)
>  The dialog to select a range(left to the input line) works with local
> range names
> 
> 
> Regards,
> Markus
>