nologic01

I wish Libreoffice would have smelled the coffee long time ago. In principle scripting using Python is possible but exceedingly cumbersome/ugly and there seems to be no roadmap to improve on this.

The same warning applies to the linux desktop and all its apps more generally. Increasingly proprietary platforms will be rolling out advanced "AI" functionality extensions to classic apps that are cloud based, many of them via a Python API.

Its a pity that the various strands of the open source universe are so siloed. The potential of the sum being more than the parts is squandered.

tzs

I think in a lot of cases its not even the advanced stuff that keeps people on Excel and other proprietary things. It's the seemingly little things.

My biggest beef with LibreOffice's spreadsheet (and with Apple's Numbers) is how they handle copy/paste of discontiguous selections.

Consider this 5 row by 3 column set of data:

  1 2 3
  4 5 6
  7 8 9
  a b c
  d e f
Suppose you select the 1 2 3 row, the 7 8 9 row, and the a b c row, copy them, and paste just below the d e f row. In Excel you get this (first 4 rows omitted for brevity):

  d e f
  1 2 3
  7 8 9
  a b c
In LibreOffice and Numbers you get this (empty cells denoted by "-"):

  d e f
  1 2 3
  - - -
  7 8 9
  a b c
I haven't found a setting to change this. Excel doesn't have a setting for this either as far as I know, so people who do want discontiguous copy/paste to preserve spacing would probably be as irked by Excel as I am by LibreOffice and Numbers. But I don't think I've ever actually wanted the spacing preserved so it is LibreOffice and Numbers that irk me.
buovjaga

I get the same result in LibreOffice 7.5.5 as your Excel example. Which LibreOffice version did you use?

tzs

7.5.5.2 on MacOS.

buovjaga

The only thing I can think of is macOS clipboard manager somehow interfering with the copied data. Was testing on Linux kf5 UI.

Also, I can preserve the empty row, if I paste with Ctrl+Shift+Alt+V (Edit - Paste Special - Paste Unformatted Text). This opens the Text Import dialog.

tzs

You've solved it!

I turned off the clipboard history app I use and now LibreOffice pastes like Excel.

The history app I use is 10 years old and I see that the company that made it apparently is no longer around (or at least their domain no longer works) so I guess I should get a newer clipboard history app.

buovjaga
Great to hear :)

Re: a new clipboard app, I often see people recommending CopyQ, which is cross-platform: https://github.com/hluk/CopyQ