Series of problems inserting a row

[LorenAmelang]

I have Collabora COOLWSD 22.05.12.4 on an iPad 12.9 5Gen with iOS 16.4.1(a). I was using an Apple Magic Mouse (first gen) with the iPad. I wanted to insert a row in an existing .ods file last accessed from Libre Calc on Windows.

I tried clicking the line number, click and hold, finger tap, long press… No insert menu. (I later found I could actually right click on the mouse like on Windows and get the “Insert Above/Below” menu options - I didn’t know that ever worked on iOS!)

I searched help and the web, and every hit said I needed the Sheet menu. But there was no Sheet menu! After a maddening trial of every item on every menu, I found View → Compact View which made the Sheet menu appear among the others. And it showed the “Insert Row” text option!

But why wasn’t Sheet there before, by default? Eventually I found View → Use Tabbed View which took me back to the no Sheet mode. And moved the View menu way to the right. Where it showed the Compact View option again.

Later I found that in the default “Tabbed View” Layout menu option (or in the Home menu option but way off the right edge of the screen) there are icons with 4x4 squares and arrows, and one of them will insert the row I wanted - but it is hard to guess which one… Turns out if you just mouse over them, you don’t get the popup clues. But if you finger tap something in that tab line, then everything you later mouse over shows a popup explanation! That would have saved me so much struggle…

So maybe I know how to work through this now. Except for one thing… While I was trying every option, in the row of icons below the Compact View menu items, I tapped the short horizontal line between the circle “shapes” dropdown and the “insert hyperlink” button. It drew a horizontal line 3.5 columns wide and 1/3 of the way up the row at a random location in the middle of the sheet. Tried again and it drew another one, lower and farther right. I can’t seem to select them with finger or mouse, or affect them in any way. If I delete the row they are in, they stay in the same screen position and another row moves up under them. What are these, and how can I get them out of my sheet?

Is any of this worthy of a bug report, or a documentation improvement request, or am I just dense?

[Tex]

Hey @LorenAmelang,

Thanks for the post + info!

Seems like we have multiple things all squished into one, but I’ll try my best to break each one down.

I have […] an iPad 12.9 5Gen with iOS 16.4.1(a).

I don’t have an iPad, but I’ll try my best.

I have Collabora COOLWSD 22.05.12.4 […] I wanted to insert a row in an existing .ods file […]

This is what it looks like in my browser:

In Tabbed Mode, the “Insert Row/Column” buttons should be under the:

• Layout Tab

about 6 icons from the left, next to the big “Column Width” button.

In Compact View, it can be found under:

• Sheet > Insert Rows
  • Rows Above
  • Rows Below
• Sheet > Insert Columns
  • Columns Above
  • Columns Below

But why wasn’t Sheet there before, by default?

To make certain things a little more Touch/Tabbed friendly, some menu options may:

• get shifted around slightly.
• get converted into buttons instead.

So it’s not a 1-to-1 match between:

• the Menu options + the Tabs.
  • (Compact Mode vs. Tabbed Mode)

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Later I found that in the default “Tabbed View” Layout menu option (or in the Home menu option but way off the right edge of the screen) there are icons with 4x4 squares and arrows, and one of them will insert the row I wanted […]

Ahh, so on iOS, the default:

• Tabbed Mode

you’re saying the “Insert/Delete Row/Column” buttons are off-screen?

Would you mind taking a picture of that?

but it is hard to guess which one… […] Turns out if you just mouse over them, you don’t get the popup clues. But if you finger tap something in that tab line, then everything you later mouse over shows a popup explanation!

This tooltip problem also seems like an issue.

So, if I understand correctly:

• Mouse hover doesn’t show tooltip.

but when you:

1. Press any icon with finger.
2. Now mouse hover.

The tooltips start appearing?

Sound like that might be something to report to the:

• Collabora Online Github

---

[…] in the row of icons below the Compact View menu items, I tapped the short horizontal line between the circle “shapes” dropdown and the “insert hyperlink” button. It drew a horizontal line 3.5 columns wide and 1/3 of the way up the row at a random location in the middle of the sheet.

Could you take a screenshot of the exact location you mean?

Could also be another bug that would be good to report, but right now, I’m a little confused by your explanation.

I think a good photo would speak a thousand words.

---

Is any of this worthy of a bug report, or a documentation improvement request

Sure! Any/All of those could help.

If you have an issue, you can always:

• Ask here
• Submit an issue to the “Collabora Office” Github
  • (This one helps Collabora developers keep track of issues in iOS, etc.)

If you have a documentation issue:

• Could you post a link to the confusing part?

Could be that part was written a few versions back, things changed, and the screenshots or instructions weren’t updated for the latest version.

or am I just dense?

A little of column A? A little of column B?

[LorenAmelang]

Thank you for the serious reply!

I don’t have an iPad, but I’ll try my best.

Tried my iPhone - totally different:

Looks like space for top menus, but nothing there… The “burger” menu does show text options.

This is what it looks like in my browser:

Oh, I was looking at Home, not Layout:

My Layout menu looks like yours, but doesn’t fit the screen width:

And I can’t find a way to drag it sideways with the mouse… And the icons stay drug to the left, even if you switch menu items, so what you see depends on which end you were looking at before.

Ahh, so on iOS, the default:

• Tabbed Mode
  you’re saying the “Insert/Delete Row/Column” buttons are off-screen?

In the Home menu they are.

• Mouse hover doesn’t show tooltip.

Turns out my first guess was wrong. The tooltips only appear after you have clicked an icon and inserted or deleted a row! After you have used a button during the session, mousing over it shows the tooltip before you click it. But the unused buttons don’t show tooltips.

[…] in the row of icons below the Compact View menu items, I tapped the short horizontal line between the circle “shapes” dropdown and the “insert hyperlink” button. It drew a horizontal line 3.5 columns wide and 1/3 of the way up the row at a random location in the middle of the sheet.

Interesting that the upper one is now on the line between 14 and 15… It used to be 1/3 of the way up 14, like the lower one is 1/3 of the way up 32.

I tried many times to select the lower one, and nothing happened. But I guess I hit just the perfect part of the left end, and got this:

Now there is yet another line, a bit below row 32 and slightly to the left of the previous one:

If you have a documentation issue:

• Could you post a link to the confusing part?

Here’s the first Duck search hit, which seemed current and authoritative:

https://help.collaboraoffice.com/latest/en-US/text/scalc/guide/main.html

And the detail page:

https://help.collaboraoffice.com/latest/en-US/text/scalc/01/04030000.html?DbPAR=CALC#bm_id3150541

I imagine it would be a serious task to update all the docs for all the variations among different hardware, but maybe there could be a note at the top of doc pages to beware of “Compact” versus “Tabbed” views whenever a page refers to menus that move or disappear between different views?

Wish there was a Preview here! Guess I’ll just submit…

[Tex]

Thanks for the screenshots + more details.

Now it’s easier to compare.

Thank you for the serious reply!

You’re welcome.

Last week, I brought this “iPad+mouse” issue up in the Community Weekly meeting.

Right now, for Android/iOS:

• Collabora is focusing on the touch interface.

Maybe in a future date, they may handle some:

• mouse-issues in touch-focused OSes.

---

Side Note: Android mouse support is a little better, since mouse clicks are:

• approximately considered like a “finger touch”.

But on iOS, mouse support is much more complicated/arcane, and mouse clicks are:

• treated completely differently from normal “finger presses”.

This is probably why you’re getting all these weird glitches and unexpected interactions happening.

---

If you want, it may be a good idea to:

• Create a Github account
• Submit some of these “iPad+mouse” issues to the “Collabora Online” Github.

Then we could get them tagged, so:

• Developers can be aware of these iPad+mouse bugs.
• In the future, if they do decide to focus on mouse-support-on-mobile, they can more easily find the issues.

---

Here’s the first Duck search hit, […]

Thanks for the Help links.

I imagine it would be a serious task to update all the docs for all the variations among different hardware, but maybe there could be a note at the top of doc pages to beware of “Compact” versus “Tabbed” views whenever a page refers to menus that move or disappear between different views?

Hmmm… Yes, that’s something to note + think about in documentation.

The Help/Screenshots/Menus typically have to settle on one UI:

• Tabbed vs. Standard

and Collabora then even has 2 more major versions too:

• Web/Browser
• Mobile (Android+iOS)
  • (And even phone vs. tablet!)

While most of the instructions/spots are the same—(or very similar)—each of these OSes has a few little differences too.

Like with LibreOffice, there’s 7 different UIs:

• /r/LibreOffice: “Best interface to learn LibreOffice?”

Personally, I write my tutorials + do screenshots using the Standard toolbar… but what if someone was using Tabbed?

(Actually, I’m one of the really weird ones, I do everything using the Sidebar UI instead! )

---

Wish there was a Preview here! Guess I’ll just submit…

Yeah, it’s taking me some time to get used to Discourse as well.

On Desktop, it cuts the screen in 2 halves:

• Left-Half = Markdown Editor
• Right-Half = Preview

In the upper-right corner of the “Reply” popup, there’s also 2 buttons:

• Maximize
• Close

Pressing the “Maximize” lets me fill up the entire screen for easier typing/previewing!

[LorenAmelang]

@Tex

Submit some of these “iPad+mouse” issues to the “Collabora Online” Github.

Calc issues on iPad with mouse (from Forum thread)

Hope that gets these issues into the “someday” chain. I agree that iOS mouse support is strange, but it really helps with the interface items that refuse to scale up with accessibility adjustments. Even if I zoom into the calc row/column area, the menus stay tiny and really hard to hit with a finger.

I see a Preview to the right of here now! Guess I totally missed that last time. It doesn’t have an outline and looks more like the top page section (I guess that’s the idea…)