Calc question - contents of target cell changes when source cell moves.

On page one I have a cell that is the source. On page two I have a cell that contains the contents of the source cell. Regardless of where the source cell moves (through sorting) I want the target cell to always contain the contents of the source cell. Additionally, regardless of where the target cell moves (row or column deletions/additions) I want it to always contain the contents of the source cell. I’ve not been able to find a way to make this happen. Can someone help?

How do you make a link between source cell and second cell on second sheet?

=$PageOne.$D$8 I have been trying this construct with/without ‘$’.

What version?
Same behaviour in LibO >Help>Restart in Safe Mode... or after a reset of the user profile?

Hello, @Agal59 Thanks a lot for asking.

1). Please check un LO settings under LibreOffic Calc -> General if Update references when sorting range of cells is enabled.

2). I believe it is natural Calc behavior - to keep cell reference to the source cell after inserting new column/row. =$PageOne.$D$8will transform for example to =$PageOne.$E$8 or =$PageOne.$D$9if you insert new column/row on PageOne sheet, and Calc will keep =$PageOne.$D$8 if you add new column/row in the sheet which contains this formula.

Thanks for good questions can be expressed by upvoting.

Thank you for ‘Update references …’. My target cell is now following the source cell when the Sort operation is used.

-1- Calc keeps the “physical” cell (you may recognise it based on a constant content or a specific hard attribute) referenced if it was moved by insertion/deletion of rows/columns or by dragging with the mouse. This means that the “AbsoluteName” (address as a string with “$” characters) must change.

-2- If your question actually concerns behaviour under sorting:
I would never advise to enable Update references when sorting range of cells. There was a version once introducing this behaviour and there were lots of issues in practical use. (There are logical implications.) Based on these experiences the mentioned option was created and set not enabled by default.

-3- Since a sheet doesn’t know about operations in a different document/file, the above does not apply to external references.

-4- I would recommend to not regard sorting as moving cells but as moving contents (contents+properties if enabled).

===Edit 2018-12-13 14:35 CET===
You may want to study the discussion of bug tdf#81633 and related bugs to find out what I meant by “implications”.

Thank you for ‘Update references …’. My target cell is now following the source cell when the Sort operation is used. I am going to have to think about your idea of ‘moving cells’ vs. ‘moving contents’.