[Libreoffice-ux-advise] [Bug 98931] Insert images into cells in Calc

bugzilla-daemon at bugs.documentfoundation.org bugzilla-daemon at bugs.documentfoundation.org
Tue Mar 29 15:01:03 UTC 2016


https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=98931

--- Comment #11 from cheater00 at gmail.com ---
Hi guys,
the two main uses of Calc that I have are:

1. shopping for stuff
2. keeping track of stuff

Scenario 1. Here's an example from yesterday. I am looking to buy a piece of
exercise equipment called a "cable cross". This means I need to go and visit
all the sources I can find on the internet, find out whether the item will fit
purpose, find out the price, shipping cost, etc, convert that to my currency,
and sort based on that. I need the following columns:

- source (business I would buy it from)
- name and type
- price (in source currency)
- shipping & handling cost
- availability
- lead time
- shipping time
- multiple columns describing the availability of features (not all cable
crossovers are the same)
- included extra equipment (say, grips or a bench)
- the value of the extra equipment
- total cost minus added value in my currency

each item I find will have multiple sources. I will go through maybe 40
sources, each of which will have maybe 5-10 possible items in various
configurations.
Often they will sell the same item at a different cost. Quite often those items
will be the same but rebranded, with a different model number. Textual
representation (make + model number) will not reveal this when reviewing the
data; only visual comparison will. This can save a lot of money when shopping.
An image can also tell me which of the various sub-options I am looking at; say
you have multiple rows for what is actually the same item but with various
accessories thrown in.

When shopping and making comparisons of physical items it is important to be
able to immediately see what you are working with because you can remember what
it is you're working with much quicker when you see an image, than when you see
gibberish model numbers like WX-STA-12-0. One look at an image tells you what
you would otherwise only find out if you scanned the whole row because that's
how human memory works. Seeing things steamlines work. Hence my comment that
spreadsheets are for humans and are more than just a programming language.

Now let's say I'm shopping for those items and during the time I'm creating the
spreadsheet for comparison I find out that there's a feature that makes a lot
of difference in value. For example if you google for "cable cross" you will
see that they have those two wheels on the side, and some of them can be moved
up and down, whereas others are fixed. This adds a lot of value. Without
images, I'll have to google each item separately, and look at the image, and
then enter into a column whether the feature is available. If I see images vice
versa the data I'm inputting, this becomes a blast. If I don't, this obviously
becomes arduous. It is my experience when shopping for more expensive items I
have to do this several times with all items.

Scenario 2. Keep track of things I have. Here's a very simple example. Take a
look at this, it's a box of guitar picks.

http://i.imgur.com/HKxXNKk.jpg

Tell me how to keep track of them without photos. In such a way that I can
easily find them in a box full of them. Do I put a barcode on each? Do I write
descriptions like "small black rounded pick"? That's never going to be
meaningful. There's going to be a dozen different small black rounded picks.
Coming up with visual descriptions is a fool's errand.

I would like to keep track of prices over time and when I need to buy more I
would also like to keep track of where I bought them in the first place.


----------------------------------------


Regarding Base. It does hold image data. However it does not display it in the
spreadsheet view. It just says "<OBJECT>". That would need to be improved upon
and images displayed.

Then there's a lot of flexibility missing. If I come up with a new way to
evaluate the efficacy of a certain purchase, that's a formula based on other
data. In Calc I just enter the formula in a cell and drag down. In Base, I
would have to: 1. possibly extend an existing table 2. create a new view 3.
create a new form. And then it turns out that for some of the rows, the formula
doesn't work, and you have to input a number by hand. At which point you've hit
the ceiling.

Or let's say you want to pick out some things and mark them bold or give them a
yellow background. You can't in base.

There's no window freezing, so very large spreadsheets can't really be worked
on. An example I work on often has 36 rows and goes up to column BF.

--------------

Accessibility is another reason. All in all I would say images carry a lot of
data for humans. Myself, I am the kind of person that goes to great lengths to
associate images of people with their names in the phone contact book. If I see
a list of bare numbers or even names in my call log I get lost, with images it
works well. So I guess that means I've got some sort of "dys" that makes me
work better with images than text. I imagine a lot of other people are the
same.

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