Bug: Row and column selection arrows in tables weird. Writer on Mac.

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#1

Just updated to newest LibreOffice 7.0.4.2 for Mac from 6.something.

I often need to copy rows and columns in tables in Writer. I mouse over the beginning of rows (or top of columns) and an arrow appears wherewith I can select one or multiple rows (or columns).

It used to be that this arrow appeared exactly where I would expect them. Now it seems that the arrow has shifted down and to the right as soon as I mouse over the beginning of a row or the top of a column to select it.
Normally the text cursor is like a double bracket with a dash in the middle that’s the center. When I select ordinary text the center dash denotes the crossover point to other lines above or below. When I mouse over the beginning of a row, it changes to an arrow. Used to change at the height of the dash. Now the arrow appears to the left of the lowest most point of the text cursor. So when I have that arrow at the center of a row’s height it selects the row above it.

I think this started when I upgraded beyond 7.x.
Very annoying when I think I click at a certain point and the row above it is selected.

Anybody know if I have something setup wrong or is this actually a bug?

#2

Note: if you want to change or edit your question, don’t ask a new one, just press edit below your question. Making duplicate posts doesn’t help.

#3

LO 7.0.4.2 under Fedora Linux 33, KDE Plasma desktop: the arrow appears where it is expected, no offset down or right. Did you also upgrade MacOS?

#4

I’d agree that it is not working perfectly on macOS (using macOS 11.0.1 and LO 7.0.4.2). Clicking arrow while it points up to 10-15% (by rule-of-thumb estimate) of row height (percentage seems to be dependent on zoom factor) below a certain row (border), the row above gets selected.

#5

Wasn’t aware I started three duplicate threads. Not my intention. Just dilutes the attention and is hard to keep up. Then again, nobody seems to have my problem…

#6

I even made a little videoclip on what happens, but I can’t upload it. Is there some format that this site will accept that I can upload?
For starters here’s a link to my video. It’s only 680Kb

As visible the cursor is jumping around when changing from the standard to the selection arrow. It does not appear where it should and when pointing it at a row or column and clicking the mouse it will select the next up row or the column to the left quite often.

#7

You can’t upload videos. A link is just as good.

#8

The change in cursor shape is a clue about what will appear if you press your mouse button.

When → appears, it tells you that a mouse click will select the entire row.

With ↓, a mouse click will select the entire column.

I see briefly a double horizontal arrow in the clip. This tool will resize the table or the column widths, I don’t remember exactly but this is the idea.

No bug.

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#9

Exactly. But it’s not doing that correctly. It changed to an arrow but it also jumps down and to the right, the arrow is not centered correctly!

The usual standard typing cursor is a (sort of) serifed I with a hyphen or dash in the middle. That dash is the canter or base line. When that dash moves below the base of the line and you click, it selects the next line underneath, this is what I established in the first seconds of my clip. The circles are mouse clicks.

When I move to the front of the table the cursor becomes an arrow. That arrow is not centered at the same place as the typing cursor, it jumps down and to the right. The arrow is NOT where the actual click happens! With the arrow up until halfway the height of a cell, a click will SELECT THE LINE ABOVE IT. Not the line it is actually pointing in! That is what I show in the video.

Same at the top of columns.

#10

This seems to me as not instinctive behavior, I can’t believe that it’s intentional that you click at a row and the row above it is selected. The selection arrows are not at the center where the actual click happens.

So, I respectfully disagree, this very much looks like buggy behavior to me.

To reiterate: It didn’t used to be this way! I used to point at the start of a line and it would just select that line, now I have to point at the line below it. It changed!

How can I make this any clearer?

#11

Apologies!

I didn’t understand correctly the question. Without comment on the video, it was difficult to see the point about the wrong selection. Do you want I withdraw my answer?

#12

Of course not. Any explanation may help in the process. I opened a bug in bugzilla and added this thread for info. Please don’t take any strong language and allcaps-ing personally, it’s just hard to explain stuff in text. And very time consuming.

It seems to me someone just changed the “centering” point for the arrows in some update and it’s a 5 minute fix. But what do I know…

#13

Just updated to newest LibreOffice 7.0.4.2 for Mac from 6.something.

please update your LibreOffice to 7.1.2 (and it will be really newest release). There are many improvements for macOS’s LibreOffice build there

#14

7,0,4.2 was the newest when I started the thread. I’ll try 7.1.2.

#15

Nope. It is the same.

#16

OK, please file a bug report on bugs.documentfoundation.org

#17

Ah. Did that. Thanks for the link.

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