Is there a way to stop the automatic creation of news rows and columns?
I am new to LibreOffice. I have hopes for it, but i am running into issues.
I am on a Macbook pro 2013, 10.15 Catalina, LO 7.1. Scrolling down or to the right, there are simply endless rows and columns. It makes a huge unwieldy file. Surely i can turn this feature off?
I have of course searched through the menus and manual, and the community here. I find nothing so far.
automatic creation of news rows and columns
No rows and columns are automatically created. There are exactly 1024 (210) columns and 1048576 (220) rows … always.
> It makes a huge unwieldy file.
No, because nothing is saved, if there is no content (empty cells) and therefore the file size only depends on the amount of data you stored into the cells.
> Surely i can turn this feature off?
No - you can’t. The only thing you could do is to hide columns and rows (but for no benefit regarding file sizes).
Thanks very much for the reply. Ok.
But can i actually delete these rows and columns, so that the window will stop, so to speak, at the edge of my [used part of] spreadsheet? It seems like no matter how much i delete, the cells are recreated immediately. It does certainly have an effect on how fast the file works.
My favorite situation would be that i could stop the creation of the extra unnecessary rows/columns, or at least delete them permanently.
But can i actually delete these rows and columns,
No - as I wrote: “there are exactly 1024 (210) columns and 1048576 (220) rows … always.” (emphasis is on always).
> It seems like no matter how much i delete, the cells are recreated immediately.
False picture of what’s going on - in fact you don’t delete columns (or rows), but you delete contents and all formatting (accompanied by moving content of cells in other columns and adapting references, if required).
> My favorite situation would be that i could stop the creation of the extra unnecessary rows/columns
Once more: No rows and columns are automatically created.
As you were already told, a spreadsheet cannot change its “logical” size. How many cells (rows/columns) you will use depends on your needs.
As you also already were told you can hide rows and/or colums you don’t want to see…
A quick way to do it is described here: Excessive number of rows and columns in a new Calc worksheet
(It makes no sense, however.)
We also dont need to discuss whether or not Calc actually deletes row. The UI actually uses the term “delete rows” aftrer all. This may be misleading, but the actual result is the same if rows are deleted and new ones created at the bottom end, or the contents of all the rows below the “deleted” ones are only moved upwards leaving empty rows back. The relevant fact is that the total number of rows is the same before and after the operation.
See Excessive number of rows and columns in a new Calc worksheet (as altready mentioned in a comment).