Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 10865
Moving/Copying -Single- Cell using click-n-drag
Last modified: 2017-05-20 11:11:40 UTC
In Excel, I can simply click-n-drag a cell and its contents to move it. And I can copy it by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking and dragging. Can we do this (very simple/useful) feature in Calc?
That's not exactly correct. In Excel, you have to drag the border of the selection. In Calc, you just can drag everywhere in the selected area (have you tried it?) To copy the area, start to drag it, THEN press the CTRL key. There should be added a "+" to the mouse pointer. First pressing CTRL does not work, because this deselects the clicked cell. Hmmm... Maybe this can be improved: Deselect the cell only, if mouse-down + mouse-up is done in the same cell, otherwise start drag+copy too.
Hi Bettina, please have a look
IMHO This is the most urgent issue on OOo, dragging more than one cell works as aspected, but if you do the same on a *single* cell it extends the selection. Have to release the mousebutton and clickndrag again for moving a single cell. So if I work on a sheet concept, then many work is done by arranging cells (single cells) and for convience it should be done in one step.
I agree with the problems here! I just tried for the first time the drag-drop option, but it selects first. In order to drag-drop a single cell you first have to select the cell together with shift-key. After that you have to try to move around the cell until you see the move-symbol at the mouse-arrow. After many tryings you can work on it, but still not as ideal as in Excel.
*** Issue 43059 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
Excel doesn't allow drag-n-drop moving at all from within the cell, only from an edge. In Excel, whether you have a single cell selected or multiple cells selected, you must move to the edge of the selection (at the black line) for the cursor to change to a "move cells" icon. Then you can drag-n-drop the cell(s). OOo is nice because you don't have to move to the edge, but the real problem here is inconsistent behaviour. If clicking and dragging a cell causes multiple cells to be highlighted, then that shouldn't change when multiple cells are already highlighted. Also, I don't think you want the default behavior to be moving a cell instead of highlighting multiple cells. People usually want to highlight, not move, cells when clicking and dragging. In my opinion, the behavior should be corrected to be consistent. So, in my opinion, the default behavior should always be to select multiple cells when clicking and dragging (whether you currently have no, one, or many cells selected). Then, I think that either calc should emulate Excel behavior by implementing a "move" handle on the selected cell(s), or, better yet, provide a shortcut key to cause the cells to move. (For example, SHIFT+click-n-drag could be the shortcut to move the cells instead of highlight a range. It doesn't have to be shift, though. It could be ALT, or CTRL+SHIFT, whatever combination isn't used already...)
It is not inconsistent at the moment! In every file-manager I know, you can drag items by first selecting them and then clicking on the selection to drag them. Why would somebody first highlight some cells and then revert that by clicking on a cell, holding the button and moving across the highlighted area, rather than just clicking somewhere next to the selected area. That does not make sense at all. If the user wants to de-select single cells from a while bunch, s/he can use CTRL+click to do so, same for adding cells to a selection. The only issue there is, is the conflict of either selecting more cells when clicking on a selected cell or dragging a single-cell. My proposal would be the following: Drag, i.e. move/copy a cell, if it was selected before the "dragging click" - select other cells, if the cell, the "dragging click" was placed on was not selected. This would be consistent with what people are used to from their file-managers. This would allow a consistent usage-pattern, i.e. (holding) the first click to select, (holding) the second click to drag. The user is already used to selecting first and then dragging, since this is the behaviour for multiple cells and most file-managers. The only thing that would not work anymore with the above is to first click on a cell, then release the mouse-button, click on it again without releasing in order to select multiple cells. Which user that wants to select multiple cells, would do two clicks instead of one? If the user wants to select multiple cells, s/he just clicks once on a cell without releasing the mouse-button and "draws a frame" to select other cells. Clicking twice on the same cell clearly states that it is not intended to select multiple cells but to drag that cell on its own.
*** Issue 54679 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
We are working with a recently hired Excel 'power user'. The issue is not wanting to reach down to the keyboard to perform this task. There is a way to perform a move of one cell without the keyboard. You select 2 cells and when they are both highlighted immediately scroll back into the one cell and that one cell is highlighted and can then be moved. This is consistent with the way that tables work in Writer. I think that adding some edge/border functionality would be great, as long as it done in all modules so it's consistent and not just an Excel-ism added.
I am changing version to 2.0.4 because this behavior is still present - in order to select cell for drag-and-drop you either need to Shift-click it or select several cells and then shrink selection to just the one you want to move. Judging by the number of simmilar issues filed ( http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=3875 http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=19133 http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=45589 http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=4887 http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=54679 http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=13413 http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=43059 and others that I could not find) I guess current behavior is very inconvinient for users. I also modified Summary to better describe the issue.
*** Issue 72175 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
It is possible but apparently not very intuitive as most ex-excel users perceive it as not possible. Maybe clicking on the cell in which focus already is should result in selecting the cell. (right now nothing happens) On the other hand double clik should allow formula editing as it is right now.
*** Issue 77054 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
*** Issue 78379 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
*** Issue 80242 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
Hi Niklas, these RFEs are in your ownership.
set target
*** Issue 88216 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
*** Issue 60286 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
I thought this was not possible at first and then read a few ways to make it happen. I understand why you don't want to have to move to the edge of the selection like in Excel because that precise mouse movement is quite tedious. I also understand that people don't want to drag out then back in or select then shift click the same cell to make it active. If I select a cell then decide I want to use that cell and add a range to it I definitely don't want my click and drag to make a range move my first cell. I don't have a good solution - maybe a time delay like clicking for 1 second before moving would act like drag and drop compared to clicking and moving to act like range selection. It was unfamiliar enough at first though to make me think it wasn't possible.
cc myself.
A simple improvement may be to simply change the mouse cursor, using the usual pointing arrow [1] when drag-and-drop extends the selection, and the traditional "move cursor" [2] when drag-and-drop copies the selection. This would certainly help the user to differentiate the two states, and not to initiate a drag-and-drop when it has not the desired effect. [1] http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cursor-design1-arrow.png [2] http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cursor-design1-move.png
*** Issue 98547 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
I spent all my votes on this. I think this is really something ex excel users will find intolerable (me included). You can't have to do three action to do something other products do in one click. Period. This is perceived as a bug and issues duplicated speak for themselves. You don't want to be default behaviour? OK, at least make it optional... PLEASEEEE
Reset assigne to the default "issues@openoffice.apache.org".