Migration issues : Calc's idiosyncrasies

[machinegun]

[hako]

I would like to add another trap users likely to get caught in when migrating from Excel to Calc: Pivot tables / Data Pilot.
Since Calc cannot modify the data range for the pivot table, users have to delete and re-create their data pilot table every time the data range changes.
So far, I could not find a way to overcome that issue.
Unfortunately, this problem is known since 2003, when issue 23658 was created. It now is planned to be solved in v3.1.
5 years is a long life time for a problem which can prevent Calc's acceptance for a lot of users.

[sowjendra]

Hi we have migrated from Excel to Open office 3.0 In Excel when a cell or cells are copied there will be a blinking border for that copied cells. it will be easy to check which cell is copied. In open office it is not available, If some one has come across any option for this, please let me know about this issue

Thanks

Surendra

[masson]

When entering a formula "=SUM()" and adding cells to the "Input Line" using mouse+Ctrl, cells are separated by semicolons, e.g. "=SUM(G276;G272;G271;G265;G262)", however OOo expects commas rather than semicolons, i.e. "=SUM(G276,G272,G271,G265,G262)" to undertake the calculation and replies with "Err:508" in the target cell rather than the sum.

I have previously created Calc spreadsheets from OOo 2.x that have been converted from semicolons to commas upon being opened in OOo 3, but adding new formulas does not work.

I did find these other references:
- Open Office Community Forum:
-- http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=14246
- Bug report:
-- https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openoffice.org/+bug/306602

OS: SUSE 10 sp2 (Linux version 2.6.16.54-0.2.12-smp (gcc version 4.1.2 20070115 (prerelease) (SUSE Linux)) #1 SMP Fri Oct 24 02:16:38 UTC 2008
OOo 3.0.1 OOO300m15 (Build:9379) Build 3.0.1.2
Dell Latitude D620, Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T5500@1.66GHz

[FWCorey]

A big dead end for me is the fact that multi-line text only seems to work when directly entered.. I have a 367 page spreadsheet which takes a mailing address from the first page for all the other pages (One page for each day of the year)
I can't justify migrating to Calc for the company involved simply because it's impractical to change every single page of that spreadsheet and 2 others to add the extra lines.. reformat the header, then reset the page size for the layout so the extra rows don't mean parts of the spreadsheet get pushed onto another page when printed. Just to separate street address, city, province/state/territory, and zip/postal code into separate cells for copying.
Wordwrap doesn't kick in because the merged cell it uses is half the page width and it would be a mess without hard returns anyway.
Anyone know of a way around this?
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- FW-Corey -

[clubsoda]

The information provided in this thread is very valuable, thank-you.

Would it be possible that all these tips and tricks could be wrapped up into some kind of Excel Overlay Mode which could be activated with the press of a button? I guess about 20 keys remapped and a dozen user interface tweaks.

I think the primary obstacle to adoption of Calc is not lack of awareness but rather the frustration of the first few encounters.

[kailashp81]

Recently i came across a situation where if the spreadsheet is opened read-only (in case somebody already opened same file exclusively), it does not allow to put cursor in the cell by double clicking. and if such content is pasted in a web based HTML editor, it pastes with a table cell.
_________________
Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently. - Henry Ford

[Ed]

[deevincentday]

I have a spreadsheet that performs time and date calculations. I sometimes want to paste the result of the formula into another part of the spreadsheet but I want the result of the formula not the formaule itself. Is there any way of doing this?

In Excel you would copy the cell containing the formula then go to paste special and select the values option. When I try paste values in Calc all the options are greyed out.

[jrkrideau]

[deevincentday]

[jrkrideau]

[rob_s]

Just installed 3.2 (my first experience with calc) and my biggest single issue right off the bat is that existing links in Excel files to named cells in other sheets do not work.

Logical thing to try and re-create the link would be insert link, pick the spreadsheet, the names appear, point to one, and guess what the formula in the source cell is duplicated in the destination, instead of displaying the value. No link formula appears.

From reading elsewhere, the former is not new, but is often mentioned as an impediment to adopting calc.

The second part may be new in 3.2 I'm not sure???