Speed up scrolling in calc? - pls. test solutions in answer

newbie-02 · March 14, 2019, 4:37pm

!! edit: found two possible solutions, they are in the answer below, pls. check and comment !!

hello @all,

i’m working on sheets up to 20k rows and 200 columns,

my hardware is fast - i think -, something with xeon, 8 virtual? cores, 16 GB ecc ram …

graphics nvidia quadro M4000M,

i’d like scrolling, esp. scrolling horizontally, to be faster than it is,

it looks like being slower when cols and rows are ‘freezed’, but i need that functionality,

i’d test with a sheet full of numbers, no text, no formulas, no calculations, and scrolling seems to take similar time as with ‘normal’ calculating sheets,

so it’s a matter of graphics?

i tested with a sheet full of numbers, 15.000 row, 150 col,

with page up and page down i can scroll vertically - fast? - 15.000 rows in ~ 18 sec.,

while horizontally i have only cursor and need ~ 5 sec. for 150 columns, i’d like that speeded up,

with three columns and 9 rows ‘frozen’ vertical scroll slows down to appr. 65 percent while horizontal stays nearly the same,

labels and so on are no help, i do have macros and similar to reach my target area, there i need to scroll to find specific connections … 150 rows down is quite fast then, 150 cols left or right too slow …

i assume there might be hints as ‘use this! font’, ‘use that setting’, ‘row heigth default’, ‘row height xx with font yy’, ‘magnification xxx percent’, ‘font size zz point’, which are good for speed, or ‘is tested, doesn’t matter’,

but to test all of that by myself i’m too short in time,

so if anybody knows a ‘recipe’ i’d be quite thankful …

reg.

b.

P.S. found one thing by myself, unfortunately with opposite effect, in 6.3.0.0.alpha0+ (x64) - a dev.-version - assigning a specific font (Arial instead of Liberation Sans) to the whole sheet impacts scroll speed dramatically, at least when assigning a specific font size (i tried 10 point), the sheet became nearly unusable, on scrolling all the time ‘adjust row hight’ is flickering across the bottom of the screen … drastic. re-assigning liberation sans corrects the issue after a close-load cycle. that story not told as solution, but as a hint that there are! formattings which affect performance, i’d like to know more details or get a recipe ‘this is the fastest’ …

Hrbrgr · March 14, 2019, 8:07pm

You can use the navigator to quickly reach a specific cell. With Ctrl + F5 you open the sidebar and select the Navigator there. For very large tables, it is advisable to assign area names. These can then also be reached via the Navigator. I wish you success!

newbie-02 · March 19, 2019, 7:38pm

hooray … got it … twice … i think,

one solution on OS-level (win) and thus for all applications, another specifically for calc:

1.) i understood that the keyboard repeat rate is the limiting factor, googled for setting of keyboard repeat beyond ‘normal’ limit, found something about ‘keyboardking’ or similar, and a nice little utility ‘keyrate’:

tested it with setting 200 10 (200 ms delay before auto-repeat, 10 ms delay between repeats), fires 100 keystrokes a second instead of 30 that’s fine

2.) in calc you can insert 4 nice ‘little’ macros like this:

sub right_10
rem ----------------------------------------------------------------------
rem define variables
dim document   as object
dim dispatcher as object
rem ----------------------------------------------------------------------
rem get access to the document
document   = ThisComponent.CurrentController.Frame
dispatcher = createUnoService("com.sun.star.frame.DispatchHelper")

rem ----------------------------------------------------------------------
dim args1(1) as new com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue
args1(0).Name = "By"
args1(0).Value = 10
args1(1).Name = "Sel"
args1(1).Value = false

dispatcher.executeDispatch(document, ".uno:GoRight", "", 0, args1())

end sub 'right_10

and assign them to keys you like (tools-customize-keyboard, select key in top box, find macro in bottom boxes, click ‘modify’),

and you’re done and ‘don’ of your computer.

(all this complex stuff for a simple instruction ‘go right ten’ triggers desparations about more complex tasks with Libreoffice (Star?)basic)

be aware that these settings change the behaviour of your computer / calc similar to the step from_bike_to_drag_racer,

keep in mind that at that speed, at least when combining both tweaks, graphics and computing performance step in, so speedup will not be linear to the settings,

worksforme, will set the thread to answered after some more testing and if commented positive by others.

old answer for reference below:

silly me, next time i’ll take some more time to think before asking …

it’s likely not graphics or LO limiting the performance, but keyboard repeat,

i remember a maximum of 30 rps, that gives in 5 seconds a scrollwidth of ~ 150 cells, as observed,

and pagedown takes ~ 30 lines at one click, so it’s about 30 times faster, as observed.

The question is still open, how can i improve the speed?

are there keyboard tweaks?
is it faster with the mouse? (besides … reg. performance i like to keep my fingers on the keys, and normally i have no mouse attached, just the touchpad)
or other good ideas?
may be a macro that jumps 10 cells at ‘alt-cursor’

@Hrbrgr,
in the time i open, adjust and fire the navigator im finished with scrolling,
i’d like to stay ‘intuitive’ with hand - cursor - eye,

reg.

newbie-02