Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 80325
Enhance 'Track Changes' in Calc: implement Functional Areas
Last modified: 2013-08-07 15:12:27 UTC
Unlike tracking changes in text documents, tracking changes in spreadsheets is substantially different. This is part of the more general issue 80139. This is partially an extension of issue 28386 (see http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=28386). TOC === 1. Functional Units 2. Changes in Computed Values 3. Tracing Back Changes 1. Functional Units =================== In a spreadsheet we are usually interested to track changes in some calculated output. I am not very interested in individual changes. Rather, the spreadsheet should be split into *functional units* and one should be able to track only changes in that specific unit. The functional units are a more advanced concept of issue 28386. This is especially useful for complex spreadsheets and in cases where many users work on the spreadsheet. The users are interested only in overviewing a specific part of the spreadsheet. 2. Computed Values ================== The Calc track-changes system is currently not able to sense changes in a computed value. Lets say, we have in cell C1=SUM(A1:B1) and one user changes the value in cell A1. Now, A1 is marked as changed, BUT cell C1 is NOT marked. However, most users will be interested in the *downstream effect* that the initial change had. Therefore, Calc should be able to track changes even in computed values. 3. Trace Back ============= Once point (2) is implemented, one may find a downstream (computed) value that looks suspect. In that case the user surely wishes to trace back the changes in an upstream value that produced this suspect computation. Most often - when I overview a spreadsheet that is updated by many workers - I wish to check only some downstream values (computed summaries). You will never have time in such a complex environment to check everything, so one is limited to checking the results. If I detect an unnatural result, I wish to be able to check the upstream changes that resulted in this dubious result, and check if those changes/new values were correct.
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