Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 29738
Print/display of zero values, tools/options and format/page
Last modified: 2013-02-07 22:33:58 UTC
There are 3 places in which the display and printing of zero values can be defined: 1. Tools/Options/Spreadsheet/Display-Zero Values 2. Format/Page/Sheet/Print-Zero Values 3. Format/Cells/Number/Format - a User-defined format allows up to three format codes: positive values; negative values; zero. By default, a zero is shown, but a null "" can also be used to force no display/printing. The first method is obviously a user setting that applies to all documents, 2&3 apply only to the current document. The logic in which these are applied is: * on screen - if Tools/Options/Spreadsheet/Display-Zero Values is set, then look at cell formatting, ie. it does not FORCE Zero Value display, rather the Cell Formatting is used. * printing - if Format/Page/Sheet/Print-Zero Values is set, then look at cell formatting. Again this does not force printing, only allow the Cell Formatting to be followed. If either Tools/Options or Format/Page Zero Values settings are CLEARED, then zeroes are not display/printed, regardless of cell formating. By way of comparison, Excel 97 does not provide the Format/Page option, and instead ALWAYS follows the cell formatting. Issues 6933, 29422, 8201, 24051, 27738 and 11144 were all created over confusion regarding the display and printing of zero values (there may be others - there is little recording of duped issues on this topic) (I will leave it to others to decide if these Issues should potentially be marked a dupe of this one, or vice versa). It is confusing to me the history of why there are 3 approaches to display/printing of zeroes, in seemingly conflicting ways. The user-wide setting is consistent with Excel and appears to be in common use. The cell formatting approach is similarly available in Excel but is possibly less well-known or used. The OOo UI on first inspection would appear to FORCE zero display/print if the Tools/Options or Format/Page settings are used, when in fact this is not the case (as mentioned previously it sets whether Cell Formatting is followed). While I accept that the UI terminology is simple (and should remain so) the user is given no hint at the use of Cell Formatting to achieve a document-formatted approach. If Zero Value display/printing functionality was to be enhanced, options are: 1. Remove the Format/Page setting - the Format/Cells setting provides the same functionality and is consistent with Excel. 2. Move the Format/Page setting to Tools/Options, so it is easily found. 3. Provide Zero Values Print and Display setting in Format/Page AND Tools/Options. 4. Change the UI so that the Format/Page and Tools/Options settings are 'Hide Zero Values'. This inverts the current settings, but better implies the true action, given that Cell Formatting is also at play. Other possibilities exist. For each of the above options there are three possible behaviours: a) Force print/display of zero values OFF b) Force print/display of zero values ON c) Allow print/display of zero values based on Cell Formatting In my opinion, the simplest solution is 4 above, with Help docs to better highlight the inter-relationship between Format Cell, Format Page and Tools Options. However any deviation from Excel's behaviour (inverting UI settings, OOo's Format/Page feature) does place this obscure feature in no-mans land. As a result my preference would be if OOo extends Excel's functionality then it either extends it powerfully (options 3 AND 4, with a/b/c) or simply (options 4 only).
Hi Bettina, one for you. Frank
*** Issue 43629 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
To grep the issues easier via "requirements" I put the issues currently lying on my owner to the owner "requirements".