Conditional formatting name (and style) changing after closing and reopening saved file under .xlsx

[OPSN]

System : Mac Os Big Sur 11.7.10
Libre Office : 7.6.5.2

Hello everyone !

I exactly have the same issue than the one described here (but the answer doesn’t help me at all) :

Calc: Styles don't keep changes

I’m working with an spreadsheet and trying to use some styles in order to identify some alerts depending on the content of some specific cells. I’ve created my own styles in order to do so. But once I saved the file, close it and reopen it, the style list shows new styles named ConditionalStyle_X for each new style that I create. Also the Conditional format of the cell now refers to the new ConditionalStyle_X. Furthermore, if I try to change anything on this new Conditional Style it changes at f…

When I create a new file, then enter a few values in cells, and create a new conditional formatting applied to a cell containing a simple formula, it perfectly works (meaning the formula works and the conditional formatting is applied)… until I save my new file with .xlsx extension and reopen it.

First thing I discover is that my conditional formatting name changed : from “hello” it became ConditionalFormatting_1. If I create a new one, called “bye”, close and reopen my file, it will become ConditionalFormatting_2. And so on.

Then, these conditional formatting may also behave weirdly : most of the format can be applied, but for example the font color become white and can’t be read.

Could you help me with this issue ?

[Hrbrgr]

@OPSN

until I save my new file with .xlsx extension

That’s the issue. Save in ODS.

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[EarnestAl]

In addition to @Hrbrgr comment about saving on native format, you should know that LibreOffice is not and never intended to be a clone of Microsoft office. There are a few things that LibreOffice supports and MS Office doesn’t and vice versa. If you can’t do it in MS Office then probably the file format doesn’t support it so it won’t appear in a saved .xlsx file.

Microsoft 365 and 2021 claim to support ODF format (see OpenDocument - Wikipedia) so there is no real reason to use a proprietary format.

[mikekaganski]

To build upon the previous comments: as you mention, there are two different problems, with very different approaches.

@OPSN

First thing I discover is that my conditional formatting name changed

As @EarnestAl explained, things that aren’t possible in an external file format just because its author doesn’t support a feature, are simply not possible. You can’t save headers and footers, OLE objects, and graphics in TXT files; you can’t have multiple sheets in CSV files; you can’t have page styles in DOCX; and you can’t have cell styles connected to conditional formats in MS spreadsheet file formats. Thus, exporting a LibreOffice document model to such an external file format has to approximate the data, to provide something as close as possible, in a way representable in the target format. Users have to learn something about the file format specifics, even if they hope to avoid that “too technical” information).

@OPSN

Then, these conditional formatting may also behave weirdly

And that needs much more detailed explanation; most likely, this would be a bug (i.e., something that can and should be fixed).

[OPSN]

Thanks for your answers !

If I understand you well,

@mikekaganski

As @EarnestAl explained, things that aren’t possible in an external file format just because its author doesn’t support a feature, are simply not possible.

giving a custom name to a custom conditional formatting is a feature not supported by Microsoft Office ? And it is the explanation of what seemed a bug to me.

@mikekaganski

Users have to learn something about the file format specifics, even if they hope to avoid that “too technical” information).

It’s interesting : but how to know if a feature is supported by Microsoft Office without using their software (which is my case) ?
This is the key statement for me :

@EarnestAl

Microsoft 365 and 2021 claim to support ODF format (see OpenDocument - Wikipedia) so there is no real reason to use a proprietary format.

I was thinking wrong by saving my files with .xlsx extension.
I will do some test to see if there is an obvious bug and come back here to provide much informations before to report it.

Thanks a lot !