Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2011 4:18 am Post subject: Table heading in writer
While I'm using more and more plain table (instad of spreadsheets) inside my text, I'm wondering if 's there a way to see cells refers without entering in the cell itself. Table are much faster to edit than spreadsheets, and I fond very easy to link calculation between different tables, thing I wasn't able to do with spreadsheets, but often I would see row and columns heading. Is this possible in some way?
I am not sure if I understand your question. Are you trying to display the underlying formula instead of the value generated by the formula within table cells? If so, can you attach a sample document that has some cells that have the type of formulas in them that you normally use?
No, I'd like to see headers if I edit formulas, something as in image 1. In the same image you can see that bottom indication of cursor position is wrong, (and it's so in most case).
As you can see in image 2, it's not simple to understand what cells are used in a formula, without the ability to view table's name and columns/rows headers.
I attach the sample document too.
As I said in previous post, I like to use table instead spreadsheets because they slow down the document usage and I can't find how link calculation between different spreadsheets.
No, I'd like to see headers if I edit formulas, something as in image 1. In the same image you can see that bottom indication of cursor position is wrong, (and it's so in most case).
In NeoOffice's underlying OpenOffice.org code, in Writer documents computed fields like page number, table cell, etc. are not immediately updated after changes are made. They are only updated when the document is saved or printed. To force all computed fields to update, select the Tools :: Update :: Update All menu.
Does selecting that menu correct the cursor position shown at the bottom of the document?
sta_admin wrote:
As you can see in image 2, it's not simple to understand what cells are used in a formula, without the ability to view table's name and columns/rows headers.
I attach the sample document too.
The bad news is that NeoOffice's underlying OpenOffice.org code has no ability for you to select a table and/or cell in a Writer formula and expand or jump to the referenced table and/or cell. In Writer, unlike Calc, formulas are just text and, like page numbers, are not immediately evaluated while you are editing them. Only when you finish editing does Writer do any evaluation of the formula.
There is a workaround but it is definitely not ideal: open a duplicate copy of your document by selecting the Window :: New Window menu. Then, after you select the Table :: Formula menu, you can switch to the duplicate document window and look at other tables and cells.
sta_admin wrote:
As I said in previous post, I like to use table instead spreadsheets because they slow down the document usage and I can't find how link calculation between different spreadsheets.
If you are going to use a lot of formulas, you may find Writer very painful to use. If Writer becomes too much of a problem, you might want to consider moving your entire sample document to a Calc document and not using Writer at all.
Your sample document seems like it could be created as a Calc document. The Writer tables would simply be different rows in the same spreadsheet and you can apply borders to the cell ranges that you want to look like Writer tables.
Paragraphs of text in Calc can be non-intuitive because, by default, text in a cell never word wraps at the edge of a page. To handle this, I merge a set of cells on the same row and use the Format :: Character menu to align the text at the top of the cell and word wrap within the cell.
Converting to Calc may seem more trouble than it is worth, but for documents with lots of tables and formulas, there are a lot of features in Calc that may ultimately save you a lot of time and hassle.
I have attached a sample .ods file that will hopefully give you a sample of the objects in Calc that I think would match your sample document's tables and text. If converting document to Calc interests you, let us know what issues you see and we can tell you if Calc can handle those issues or not.
To force all computed fields to update, select the Tools :: Update :: Update All menu.
I haven't an "Update All menu" command. I tried "Update All" (first of the update commands), but didn't have any effect.
pluby wrote:
The bad news is that NeoOffice's underlying OpenOffice.org code has no ability for you to select a table and/or cell in a Writer formula and expand or jump to the referenced table and/or cell. In Writer, unlike Calc, formulas are just text and, like page numbers, are not immediately evaluated while you are editing them. Only when you finish editing does Writer do any evaluation of the formula.
OK, but this was not wath I asked: I asked to have the ability to see row and columns headers (A, B, C,.... 1, 2, 3,....) around the tables, with a show/hide command (ore something like that)
pluby wrote:
If you are going to use a lot of formulas, you may find Writer very painful to use. If Writer becomes too much of a problem, you might want to consider moving your entire sample document to a Calc document and not using Writer at all.
I'll evaluate this possibility, but much documents has photos, different tables with different columns quantity and width, paragraphs and so on... definitely the most obvious thing is to use write. Something can be done with Calc, but Calc inside Write is a pain... and... am I right that different spreadsheets inside the same write document can't be linked?
In the past time I used AppleWorks to do this kinds of document, and there I must use an unique spreadsheet with different "viewports" each of which can started from a different cell, so I did all calculation on one spreadsheet, but put only the pieces I needed on write document. AppleWorks had the ability to show/hide spreadsheet headers.
Before AppleWorks I tried Ragtime, which was more comfortable because I was able to link different spreadsheets (both wasn't so painfully slow as NeoOffice/OpenOffice with spreadsheed's inside, even of much older hardware), and when I discovered that NeoOffice can do calculations inside tables and link different tables, I thought I can operate like in Ragtime. Tables are enough fast, the unique lack I found is I can't se Table names and headers.
But... has Patch-3-Test-3 something to do with updating cell references (see attachment), too?! Because now, after installing the patch it seems to work right... It's not the same as see table headers, but is certainly useful.
I am glad to hear that the fix for the "cursor jumpsback" issue seems to also fix the problem with the cell reference. It is interesting that they are related in the OpenOffice.org code.
sta_admin wrote:
OK, but this was not wath I asked: I asked to have the ability to see row and columns headers (A, B, C,.... 1, 2, 3,....) around the tables, with a show/hide command (ore something like that)
Ah. I misunderstood your question. Unfortunately, the OpenOffice.org Writer code does not have any ability to show headers for tables. Only Calc sheets have that ability.
sta_admin wrote:
In the past time I used AppleWorks to do this kinds of document, and there I must use an unique spreadsheet with different "viewports" each of which can started from a different cell, so I did all calculation on one spreadsheet, but put only the pieces I needed on write document....
You are correct that you cannot use formulas to reference separate embedded spreadsheets within Writer, but you can do a "viewport" approach to a single .ods file using the following steps:
1. Create a Calc spreadsheet with multiple tables of data. It does not matter if where you put your tables in the spreadsheet but putting each table in a separate spreadsheet tab might make the next steps easier.
2. Save the Calc spreadsheet and open your Writer document.
3. In the Writer document, insert a link to the Calc spreadsheet by selecting the Insert :: Object :: OLE Object. In the dialog that appears, select "NeoOffice 3.1.2 Spreadsheet" and then click on the "Create from file" radio button. Check the "Link" checkbox (it is very important that you link the file, not embed it), select the .ods file created in step 1, and press the OK button.
4. Double-click on the linked spreadsheet object and navigate to the spreadsheet tab and cell range that you want to display. Resize the linked object if it too large or small to display the cell range you have navigated to.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 to insert additional viewports to the same spreadsheet file.
Note that if you use the "viewport" approach and you send other people your Writer file, you will need to also send them the linked spreadsheet file.
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