Is there a way to navigate the muffin/ribbon with keyboard

[dibakash]

I can see that pressing the Alt key will allow selecting the top menu items like file, edit, view, insert etc while pressing the appropriate key after the alt key. ( for example alt + I will go to insert). But I cannot seem to navigate with keyboard to the muffin menu ( file, Home, Insert, Layout, Data, review etc as shown in the attached screenshot).

I am trying to switch from excel to libre calc for all my work. In MS I am able to work much faster because of keyboard sequential key selections. For eg., if I want to add borders to selected cells in excel, I can quickly press alt>h>b>a to apply borders to all the selected cells in less then 1 second. And there are many useful combinations like this. I rarely use mouse while working with excel. I really want to switch to calc but I am not able to work with the same speed. I tried to ask this before but all I get as an answer is how calc is better and with lots of options etc. but the reality is that these answers aren’t helping.

Inability work without mouse is a big hindrance to work speed.

I really want to love libre as I am a huge fan/supporter of open source communities.

I hope someone from the team understands this issue. And even if it takes time introduces the feature. ( sometimes being able to navigate with keyboard the entire UI menu is much faster than remembering custom shortcuts)

The muffin seems to have underlined letters in the menu though.

I am also sharing excel screen shots so that you get the comparison.!

[dibakash]

Eagerly waiting for an response

[lasagnacrab]

+1 on this. I’ve thought about writing macros or adding keybindings for my most used alt shortcuts, but the visual cues on Excel detailing what the next keypress will do are very helpful as well.

[EarnestAl]

Calc isn’t Excel
Modify an Accent style to suit, say Accent 1. Then simply Alt+Y Alt+1 will change the cell style to suit.
The Calc guide has a chapter on Styles and templates, download from English documentation | LibreOffice Documentation - Your documentation for LibreOffice
Cheers, Al

[dscharalampidis]

This is also my main problem with any office alternative on Linux. They just can’t match Excel. Probably that’s true for Word and the others, but Excel is what I use more.

The KeyTips that were introduced with Office 2007 gave a huge productivity boost to power users. I simply cannot work without them.

In 2016, WPS added the exact same functionality, but they removed it in 2019, God knows why.

My solution so far is to use a WPS Office 2016 snap. I have forked it and added support for more languages and you can find it here: https://github.com/dscharalampidis/wps-office-multilang

If you’re on Ubuntu, you’re fine. Except that you will be using old software and you will be missing more advanced features like data tables and others, used for sensitivity analysis, part of the Analysis ToolPak that are not available for WPS.

This is the closest I got to Excel.

If you’re on another distro snapd will install a bunch of bloatware like Ubuntu core and you will still be able to work.

I am currently on Gentoo and snapd does not work without systemd which brings me back to zero… Looking for ways to get Excel working.

I will try wine with MS Office 2016 for a while and hope Microsoft will create a Linux version in the next decade.

If you’re on Windows… I would suggest to keep using Excel.

[LeroyG]

@dibakash

navigate with keyboard to the muffin menu

The tabbed toolbar (for me, muffin is tomething like a cupcake) is not fully developed yet (7.1.8.1). So, there is no easy way to navigate it.¹ I also rely a lot on the keyboard, but not for formatting; and in Calc I am able to work with more speed (different workflow, different experiences).

@dibakash

I tried to ask this before

@dibakash

someone from the team

You can post an enhancement request at http://bugs.documentfoundation.org, (I will endorse it).

¹ See answer to related question How to access the Tabbed toolbar with the keyboard - #2 by LeroyG

[Villeroy]

Use the classic menu interface with Alt+[underlined character]. Admittedly, there is one problem with this approach. A group of UX experts constantly changes the menu structure and/or the Alt-shortcuts.

[LeroyG]

@Villeroy

Use the classic menu interface

Problem two:
I can’t find a simple (ever working) keyboard sequence to, i.e., reach to “apply borders”.

[Villeroy]

Since Excel 95 I never apply any borders to spreadsheets except when I need to highlight something in the final document before sending it to someone else. Borders are complex and confusing without contributing anything to the functionality. My shortcut for complex hard formatting is Ctrl+1.