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NeoOffice :: View topic - Drag and Drop in Calc
Drag and Drop in Calc
 
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jgd
Agent Smith


Joined: Feb 27, 2005
Posts: 1531
Location: France

PostPosted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 2:04 pm    Post subject: Drag and Drop in Calc

A new page:

[url=http://neowiki.neooffice.org/index.php/Fr:Glisser-déposer_une_plage_de_cellules]français[/url]

English PPT Smile

Jacqueline
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Lorinda
Captain Mifune


Joined: Jun 20, 2006
Posts: 2051
Location: Midwest, USA

PostPosted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 3:01 pm    Post subject:

TPT Very Happy
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yoxi
Cipher


Joined: Sep 07, 2004
Posts: 1799
Location: Dawlish, Devon

PostPosted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 3:12 pm    Post subject:

I've made some minor changes to the English version - and a slightly less minor one to the explanation of how to select a single cell, because it's actually a lot simpler than the way you were describing; basically, you click once on the cell (to make it the active cell), and then shift-click on it, and it's selected. No sliding around is necessary!

I'll leave it to you to change those instructions in French if you think this is a better way Smile

- padmavyuha
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yoxi
Cipher


Joined: Sep 07, 2004
Posts: 1799
Location: Dawlish, Devon

PostPosted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 3:21 pm    Post subject:

Oh, and maybe I'm being stupid, but surely to copy a cell or range of cells to another sheet, instead of:

Quote:
• Select the range you want to copy. It may consist of a single cell.
• Go to the Data menu and choose Define Range….
• Give this range a name, for example CopyTest and click on Add. Click on OK.
• Select the sheet in which you want to copy this range.
• Open the Navigator by going in the Edit menu, then selecting Navigator.
• Click on the little triangle on the left side of Database Ranges.
• Select the CopyTest range, right click or Control-click on this rectangle.
• Choose Drag Mode then Insert as Copy in the contextual menus.
• Drag the rectangle CopyTest from the Navigator window to the location where you want to copy this range.

The original range is copied into this location without being deleted.


it's fundamentally easier to:

• Select the cell or range of cells you want to copy to another sheet
• Copy them to the clipboard using cmd-C or by clicking on the Copy button in the Toolbar
• Navigate to the target sheet
• Click on the cell where you want the copied cell to be pasted (or in the case of a range, where you want the top-leftmost cell to be pasted)
Paste the cells using cmd-V or by clicking on the Paste button in the toolbar.

Have I missed something, or isn't copy/paste much simpler and doesn't it achieve the same thing?
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jgd
Agent Smith


Joined: Feb 27, 2005
Posts: 1531
Location: France

PostPosted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 2:18 am    Post subject:

yoxi wrote:
I've made some minor changes to the English version - and a slightly less minor one to the explanation of how to select a single cell, because it's actually a lot simpler than the way you were describing; basically, you click once on the cell (to make it the active cell), and then shift-click on it, and it's selected. No sliding around is necessary!

I'll leave it to you to change those instructions in French if you think this is a better way Smile

- padmavyuha

Good. It's much simplier.
I think that we can change the page by creating a section "Selecting a cell or a cell range" then adding the other sections with the necessary modifications.
I'll do that today, at least in the Fr version, and post here when it will be done.

Quote:
Have I missed something, or isn't copy/paste much simpler and doesn't it achieve the same thing?

The question was copy/paste a cell range with the mouse.
The described method seems trickier, and OK it is trickier. But it's less tricky in the same time Wink, and it presents some advantages:

Nothing is put in the clipboard

You don't have to leave the sheet in which you are working, go to the sheet containing the range to be copied, select it, return to your first sheet and paste the range.
Moreover, I presume that the user knows the copy-cut/paste method Smile.

A language question for a Fr native speaker: I saw that you use "whilst" instead of "while" to translate "tout en" ou "tandis que". UK/US difference?


Thanks for the constructive remarks.

Thanks to Lorinda and you for the polishing. Smile

Jacqueline
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yoxi
Cipher


Joined: Sep 07, 2004
Posts: 1799
Location: Dawlish, Devon

PostPosted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 4:22 am    Post subject:

Bearing in mind that the original query that sparked this wiki entry was about how to move cells by drag-and-drop...

I get your point about not having to leave the sheet you're working on - though I bet it's rarely the case that a user knows the source & target cell references off by heart in order to be able to do that, which is why I'd assumed they'd usually have to jump sheets at some point anyway to see where they're moving from/to.

As for the 'using only the mouse' issue, your method still uses the keyboard ('give the range a name', shift key etc.) - mine has less mouse clicks in it, and involves no typing apart from using the shift key if needed (copy/paste can be done using toolbar buttons or via contextual menu).

So the 'not involving the clipboard' issue seems to be the only significant factor most of the time. But I'm being fussy... using the navigator is still a neat method Smile

Speaking of fussy, to answer your while/whilst query, I refer you to my guru.

I like the idea of a section on selecting the cell or cell range, followed by instructions on what you can do with the selected cells (move, copy, copy across sheets) - it's more functional.

- padmavyuha
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yoxi
Cipher


Joined: Sep 07, 2004
Posts: 1799
Location: Dawlish, Devon

PostPosted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 4:48 am    Post subject:

Incidentally, you might want to add this:

To move a cell/range of cells to another sheet:
• select the cell(s) as described above
• click on the selected cell(s) and drag the cursor quickly down to the target sheet tab (the 'quickly' part fools NeoOffice into not scrolling the page!)
• the new sheet will come to the front, and then you can drop the selected-cell frame where you want the cell(s) moved to.

Notes:
i) the selected-cell frame display part is a bit flaky in the target sheet, but it still works.
ii) I couldn't find a way to make this work using the opt key to copy, rather than move the cells.

- padmavyuha
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jgd
Agent Smith


Joined: Feb 27, 2005
Posts: 1531
Location: France

PostPosted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 6:07 am    Post subject:

yoxi wrote:
Bearing in mind that the original query that sparked this wiki entry was about how to move cells by drag-and-drop...

OK. Smile
Quote:

I get your point about not having to leave the sheet you're working on - though I bet it's rarely the case that a user knows the source & target cell references off by heart in order to be able to do that, which is why I'd assumed they'd usually have to jump sheets at some point anyway to see where they're moving from/to.

Once the Data Range has been defined (Data > Define Range…), you don't have to remember its references. You just have to remember its name and select it in the Navigator window.
Quote:

As for the 'using only the mouse' issue, your method still uses the keyboard ('give the range a name', shift key etc.) - mine has less mouse clicks in it, and involves no typing apart from using the shift key if needed (copy/paste can be done using toolbar buttons or via contextual menu).

Once you have defined your Data Range, you can copy it (n+1) times in (p+1) various sheets, with no more work than dragging the little rectangle from the Navigator to your work sheet. n and p being inderminate, as usual.
Quote:

Speaking of fussy, to answer your while/whilst query, I refer you to my guru.

Ah! Also "whilst" is "a more formal and literary word than its counterpart". Very good reason Smile
Quote:

Incidentally, you might want to add this:

To move a cell/range of cells to another sheet:
• select the cell(s) as described above
• click on the selected cell(s) and drag the cursor quickly down to the target sheet tab (the 'quickly' part fools NeoOffice into not scrolling the page!)
• the new sheet will come to the front, and then you can drop the selected-cell frame where you want the cell(s) moved to.

OK.

Jacqueline
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yoxi
Cipher


Joined: Sep 07, 2004
Posts: 1799
Location: Dawlish, Devon

PostPosted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 7:27 am    Post subject:

Okay, now I get it - the Data Range method is the ideal method if you have a 'copy once, paste many times' situation. If it's just a one-off, then copy/paste is quicker, but presumably the other neat thing about the Data Range method is that you can re-use it after updating the source data, and the latest data will be copied, unlike if the data were sitting in the clipboard.

Does the Data Range method work across docs? i.e. if you have the source doc open, can you then paste the data range into different docs using this method? Maybe this isn't relevant, I'm just curious!

As to 'whilst', to be honest I hadn't even been conscious of choosing it over 'while', it just feels right alongside a present participle like 'holding'. My inner grammar-checker tells me to use 'whilst' when the phrase it's part of is in the present, such as: 'do this whilst holding down that key', and 'while' is for most other applications. I'd also use 'whilst' in a sentence like: "Whilst I agree with your reasoning, I don't...', which is also in the present. I've no idea whether this application is specific to people brought up in London in the 60's or whether it's more universal or what. I'm awaiting the SOED on CD-ROM at the moment, we'll see what it has to say!

- padmavyuha
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jgd
Agent Smith


Joined: Feb 27, 2005
Posts: 1531
Location: France

PostPosted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 8:22 am    Post subject:

yoxi wrote:

Does the Data Range method work across docs? i.e. if you have the source doc open, can you then paste the data range into different docs using this method? Maybe this isn't relevant, I'm just curious!

Yes IT WORKS! Very Happy I just tested: drag the data range from the Navigator in the first doc to the doc where you want to paste it.

Quote:

As to 'whilst', to be honest I hadn't even been conscious of choosing it over 'while', it just feels right alongside a present participle like 'holding'. My inner grammar-checker tells me to use 'whilst' when the phrase it's part of is in the present, such as: 'do this whilst holding down that key', and 'while' is for most other applications. I'd also use 'whilst' in a sentence like: "Whilst I agree with your reasoning, I don't...', which is also in the present. I've no idea whether this application is specific to people brought up in London in the 60's or whether it's more universal or what. I'm awaiting the SOED on CD-ROM at the moment, we'll see what it has to say!

- padmavyuha

I love these "language subtleties" Smile

Jacqueline
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jgd
Agent Smith


Joined: Feb 27, 2005
Posts: 1531
Location: France

PostPosted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 11:12 am    Post subject:

I just updated the French page.

Jacqueline
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jgd
Agent Smith


Joined: Feb 27, 2005
Posts: 1531
Location: France

PostPosted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 12:16 pm    Post subject:

Now the English one too. Ouf!

Jacqueline
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yoxi
Cipher


Joined: Sep 07, 2004
Posts: 1799
Location: Dawlish, Devon

PostPosted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 2:23 pm    Post subject:

Great stuff - I've done some editing in the English of which I hope you'll approve:
• 'dragging and dropping between different sheets' is better than 'dragging and dropping in different sheets'
• I've rewritten that section a bit to reflect the fact that when using my drag-drop method to move a range to another sheet, if that sheet is in a different document the data is copied rather than moved - similar to when moving files to another volume in the Finder they get copied instead (this ought to be updated in French too).

Now I'm really starting to appreciate how much thought and work you and others have put into this wiki. Chapeau!

- padmavyuha
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jgd
Agent Smith


Joined: Feb 27, 2005
Posts: 1531
Location: France

PostPosted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 1:55 am    Post subject:

yoxi wrote:
Great stuff - I've done some editing in the English of which I hope you'll approve:
• 'dragging and dropping between different sheets' is better than 'dragging and dropping in different sheets'

Now I've three "grammar checkers" (and free checkers!): le grand luxe…
Quote:

• I've rewritten that section a bit to reflect the fact that when using my drag-drop method to move a range to another sheet, if that sheet is in a different document the data is copied rather than moved - similar to when moving files to another volume in the Finder they get copied instead (this ought to be updated in French too).

I updated the French page. Thanks, I'd not noticed this difference.
Quote:

Now I'm really starting to appreciate how much thought and work you and others have put into this wiki. Chapeau!

Thanks a lot Very Happy
I've removed from the English page an useless title which I'd copied/pasted from my draft, and completely forgotten.

Jacqueline
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yoxi
Cipher


Joined: Sep 07, 2004
Posts: 1799
Location: Dawlish, Devon

PostPosted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 3:19 am    Post subject:

Looks great in English. Incidentally, I just got SOED and it says:



...so that's clear, then Confused
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