Trace dependecies that are in another worksheet

Timi1 · November 18, 2021, 1:20pm

Hello everyone

When tracing dependents that are in another worksheet, a square is shown. But the cursor does not change over the square and there is no way to trace dependent cells.

This question has been asked before and @mikebibo gave a great answer ie

Ctrl+[ (Control + left square bracket)

See https://ask.libreoffice.org/t/trace-dependents-precedents-when-in-another-sheet/150/3?u=timi1

However, this solution only traces precendents. It doesn’t trace dependents. Does anyone know how to trace dependents in LibreOffice?

sokol92 · November 18, 2021, 1:31pm

The corresponding keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+], but it seems to work within a single sheet.

Timi1 · November 18, 2021, 1:43pm

Ah! That explains why nothing happened when I tried that .

Many thanks.

Lupp · November 18, 2021, 2:13pm

I wouldn’t expect much of an attempt to get a graphical solution of the Detective type. Dependent cells in different sheets may be more than one. How to get this clear concerning the Z-order?

The appropriate tool to analyze (and bug-fix) concerning precedents in a not too simple case is the Structure tab of the Function Wizard (actually a formula wizard). It might be enhanced by making the nodes click-sensitive to allow for the creation of a next-order-tree if this node is a cell reference or a reference to the output range of an array-formula…

A tool creating a tree-view of the dependent cells/ranges would surely be useful.

There is the old bug (enhancement request) tdf#63087 where you may comment.
A new feature request to the above sketched effect might be more valuable.

Timi1 · November 19, 2021, 2:37pm

That would actually be a great help. But in addition to this, I’d suggest something that’s easy for novice users to discover:

When user traces a dependent/precedent that’s on another worksheet the blue square is shown, just as it is now.
If user hovers over the square, cursor changes to indicate that it can be clicked on.
When user clicks on square a floating dialog shows up with a list of all dependents/precedents that are on other worksheets.
To navigate to the relevant cell, user then clicks on any item on the list.
When user navigates to another worksheet this way the dependent/precendent cell is highlighted the same way as happens now.
User closes the floating dialog when finished.

Timi1 · November 19, 2021, 2:48pm

Thanks for the link the the old bug report, I’ve added same comments there.