A shortcut when typing a Function into a cell

[reido113]

I am transitioning over to LibreOffice and have a simple workflow cemented in my head and cannot seem to find how to perform this operation in Calc. I am willing to part with the habit, however, maybe someone can offer a solution or alternative…

Use Case (in that other software that I am transitioning FROM): In a cell I start typing =Su then a dropdown list shows up with choices SUBSTITUTE, SUBTOTAL, SUM, SUMIF. I can press the down arrow to highlight SUM then press tab which allows me to start selecting the cells that I want to run the function on.

Use Case in Calc: In a cell I start typing =Su and I see hints [SUBSTITUTE], SUBTOTAL, SUM and 7 more, however, I cannot cycle through that list. I have to completely type =sum( before I can start selecting the cells to run the function on. If I type =sum and press tab like I am accustomed to, I just jump over to the next cell.

Is there a way to cycle through the Functions when typing in the cell? Is there a key that will autocomplete the Function and let me go directly to selecting cells to run the Function on?

I hope this makes sense. It has been difficult trying to find a way to feed a search engine this question.

Thank you and Cheers

[EarnestAl]

Ctrl+F2 opens the Insert Function dialog.

[reido113]

Thank you for this suggestion @Earnest AI
On my Mac it requires CMD+F2 to open the Function dialog. Ctrl+F2 highlights the ribbon of the OS. I am trying to avoid the Function dialog.

[Zizi64]

Use the CTRL-TAB key combination to change the selection of the pale yellow Tips label, then hit ENTER.

(Tested on the LO7.1.4 portable version on a Hungarian Windows 10 prof.)

[reido113]

Thank you. This is exactly what I am trying to do. Cycle through the selection in the pale yellow Tips label.
I am on a Mac using version 7.0.4.2 at the moment and the CTRL-TAB (nor OPTION-TAB) combo works for me I will keep trying some different combinations in the meantime. Thank you again for your reply.

[Zizi64]

COMMAND-TAB???

[reido113]

COMMAND-TAB is on the OS thread and cycles between the open applications

[Zizi64]

The CTRL-TAB has multiple function in the LO/Win:

• Switch between the existing Sheets of the LO Calc (when a formula is not edited)
• Choose the next function of the pale yellow Tips when a formula is edited.

Try the key combination what is assigned to the sheet switch on your computer. Check it in the Customize menu.

See the attached image at my answer above.

[Lupp]

@reido113: You may nonetheless try the function wizard (tab Functions) as suggested by @EarnestAl . It also can handle nested function calls, and help to avoid carelessly unpaired parentheses and other errors of the kind.
Beyond this the wizard is helpful in debugging.
(I personally always found the “function tooltips” rather annoying and prefer to switch them off.)

[reido113]

@Zizi64 By default, my “Next sheet” keyboard shortcut is assigned to two different key combinations.

1. CTRL+TAB *does not work
2. CMD+page down *works.

This does leave the CTRL+TAB available for me to use, however, so far I have not been able to locate an option to “next function of the pale yellow tips” or “function tooltips” as pointed out by @Lupp

@Lupp Thank you for your sharing your viewpoint re: the wizard and tooltips being annoying. Great food for thought for me as I consider re-thinking my approach to this old habit that I am attempting to carry over.

[reido113]

@zizi64 Had the absolute correct answer with using the CTRL+TAB combination to cycle through the pale yellow tips label.
*It took me a long time to realize that I did not ask the question correctly by specifying that I am using the LibreCalc installation on a MAC. That is 100% my problem (which I still have). As soon as I tried this solution on a Linux and Windows installation I had no problem.

Thank you for the assistance. Lesson learned on my end and apologies for the confusion. Cheers