LibreOffice Calc, typing in a cell constantly overwrites the same character over and over?

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#23

I have the same issue (MacOS; LibreOffice 7.3.4). It has been a feature of LO for some time and ALL the observations are correct:

  • It is maddeningly non-reproducible. When I use your example ‘123.45’, it doesn’t do it. But I was working in a spreadsheet yesterday and the cursor repeatedly switched to Overwrite by itself. I have observed it mostly in larger spreadsheets with “lots of text.” Make of that what you will.
  • Toggling from Insert to Overwrite does not help (yes, we thought of that.)
  • Saving the document, closing the program, etc. - yes, tried. No, it doesn’t solve the problem.

As for bug reports, one has to be able to describe/capture/the bug in some detail and I have never been able to do that. The behavior is too random and the few times I’ve tried to screen record, it stopped doing it. Absolutely infuriating!

So kudos to you for finally Photographing this Monster! Maybe the fact that many of us have seen it will enable someone to finally kill it for us.

#24

Nobody will do anything until a bug report is made because the developers won’t know about it.
The other posters haven’t made a bug report as far as I know, could you please do it?
Please report the bug number here
Cheers, Al

#25

Bug 162413 has been successfully created

2 Likes
#6

At the bottom of the LibreOffice Calc window, you should see, in the Status bar, Overwrite. Click it to change to Insert mode.
OverwriteMode

1 Like
#7

Hi, thanks for your suggestion, but it’s never on “Overwrite” and always seems to be on “Insert”. Here’s a video proving it. Click on the “broken” canvas to open it directly in a new tab (this forum does not allow large GIF pictures)

#8

Does it exhibit the same behaviour in Safe mode? Click Help - Restart in Safe mode - Continue in Safe mode

#9

Yup, same exact behaviour in safe mode. If nobody knows, I’ll wait a couple days/weeks until 24.2.x gets in stable release and I’ll upgrade and re-test then.

#10

Try pressing Fn+Enter once to toggle Insert mode in Mac.

Possible bug, see Bug 82599 - Insert and overwrite mode reversed in cell while editing on the Calc Formula bar

If it is not resolved by toggling Insert mode or by restarting computer then report a bug. If the developers don’t know about it, they cannot fix it, see How to Report Bugs in LibreOffice - The Document Foundation Wiki

#11

FN+Enter does nothing except to validate the cell and then it selects the cell underneath it. But just so we’re clear, what do you mean by “toggling” the insert mode? It’s constantly in insert mode already as you can see in my animated GIF from yesterday. I also discovered that you don’t even have to type “123.45 total”. You can repeat the bug with any 2 words, e.g. “abc abc” does the same bug when you try to highlight the first “abc” and type over it.

#12

The bug I referred to shows Insert when it has switched to Overwrite mode.

Please file a bug report and give the bug number here in the form tdf#1234567 so it creates the link. Cheers, Al

#14

i think i have seen the same / very similar behavior on my system
but for me it is not reproducable - it just occures sometimes -
and is gone if i restart libreoffice…

Version: 7.6.5.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 60(Build:2)
CPU threads: 16; OS: Linux 6.5; UI render: default; VCL: kf5 (cairo+xcb)
Locale: de-DE (en_US.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Ubuntu package version: 4:7.6.5-0ubuntu0.23.10.1
Calc: threaded

#15

Just clicking Overwrite in the status bar at the bottom or pressing the Insert key should fix it.

If not then try these steps before submitting a bug report, First steps to take before submitting a bug - The Document Foundation Wiki

#16

There’s no such thing as “Overwrite” in the status bar when this happens, at least on my side. I kindly ask you to please read the thread carefully before replying. You reply a lot in this thread, but it doesn’t make much sense. Look at the GIF animation at the top of the thread to see my whole screen.

#17

It was intended for the previous, new comment for whom it happens only occasionally so is unlikely to be the issue you encounter. The normal way of switching between Insert and Overwrite will probably work for them.

Did you report a bug? Please post the bug number in the form tdf#123456. Cheers, Al

1 Like
#18

I have a related problem. From time to time Libreoffice switches randomly in replace mode while typing inside of a cell. It might be related to special characters in the german (ö,ä etc.) but it ist not reproducible.
It is definitely not related to the toggle insert/ replace button.

#19

Then open a new topic and put a link to this thread, if you think it is related. You may have noticed @marctremblay don’t like other topics in “his” thread:

#20

You’re entitled to being wrong and make a fool of yourself by quoting me completely out of context, but know that I don’t appreciate you trying to make me look like an idiot. Read the thread and then perhaps you’ll understand the context of the sentence that you blindly quoted (or perhaps not).

In any case, please refrain from speaking for me, especially if you’re going to arrogantly warp my quotes. After seeing Wanderer’s reply, I’m now 100% sure this forum is definitely not a place to report bugs. Looks like a kindergarten.

#21

You are absolute correct, this is not the place to report bugs. See This is the guide - How to use the Ask site? - #3 by Hrbrgr

The correct place has already been posted here, How to Report Bugs in LibreOffice - The Document Foundation Wiki

But please report the bug number back here

AFAIK nobody has bothered to report a bug yet.

#22

Check the context yourself. I quoted from your reaction to the first “similiar problem” question by s-light1. So I guess it fits as a warning for the next questioneer.

#26

I just had a similar behavior and the problem came from the mouse : the middle button was pressed (ill behavior of my mouse) and it made this, by turning it off and on, everything went back as normal and this glitch diasappeared.

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