suggestion to make the hig

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http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=67993
                 Issue #|67993
                 Summary|suggestion to make the highlighting
of table entries m
                        |ore meaningful. 
               Component|Spreadsheet
                 VersionOo 2.0.2
                Platform|All
                     URL|
              OS/Version|Linux
                  Status|UNCONFIRMED
       Status whiteboard|
                Keywords|
              Resolution|
              Issue type|ENHANCEMENT
                Priority|P4
            Subcomponent|viewing
             Assigned to|spreadsheet
             Reported by|ninorpereira





------- Additional comments from ninorpereiraopenoffice.org Mon Jul 31 07:22:51 -0700 2006 -------
Recently I had to do a (for me complicated) bookkeeping
exercise,
 for which I used the OpenOffice spread sheet (of course). 
I had to pull numbers together from different sheets, and
then
use formulas to put other numbers on new sheets, etc. 
 
I found the highlighting feature (view > value
highlighting) very handy,
because you can see whether a number can be inserted by hand
on this
particular sheet (so that you are allowed to modify it).
These are blue.
When a number comes from another sheet, or from a
calculation, 
the number is green. These you should not modify, you should
go to
the page where it came from and modify it there. 

But, there's no way to tell the different green numbers
apart:
a number that's copied looks the same as one that's
calculated,
and a number that is calculated with another number that
comes
from an earlier calculation is just as green.  
 
But, wouldn't it be nice if some additional colors could
say more
about where the spreadsheet entries are coming from?
I can imagine the following:

                                          hand entry: blue 
(as now)
                                        copied entry: green
(as now)
                                   calculated number: dark
green
number calculated with other data calculated earlier: red
                                   three levels down:
orange,
etc. Any more or less logical color scheme would be fine
too, or better
yet, a color scheme whose default comes from the font
palette
(so that it's easy to program?).

In GNU/linux the 'ls --color' command has a logical way to
do colors,
and the user can modify the colors too. There are only 7,
but this would
be fine for the purpose I suggest. These colors sit in a
file called
.dir_colors. The relevant part of mine is: 

# Below are the color init strings for the basic file types.
A color init
# string consists of one or more of the following numeric
codes:
# Attribute codes:
# 00=none 01=bold 04=underscore 05=blink 07=reverse
08=concealed
# Text color codes:
# 30=black 31=red 32=green 33=yellow 34=blue 35=magenta
36=cyan 37=white
# Background color codes:
# 40=black 41=red 42=green 43=yellow 44=blue 45=magenta
46=cyan 47=white
NORMAL 00       # global default, although everything should
be something.
FILE 00         # normal file
DIR 01;34       # directory
LINK 01;36      # symbolic link
FIFO 40;33      # pipe
SOCK 01;35      # socket
BLK 40;33;01    # block device driver
CHR 40;33;01    # character device driver
ORPHAN 01;05;37;41  # orphaned syminks
MISSING 01;05;37;41 # ... and the files they point to

# This is for files with execute permission:
EXEC 05;32

# List any file extensions like '.gz' or '.tar' that you
would like ls
# to colorize below. Put the extension, a space, and the
color init string.
# (and any comments you want to add after a '#')
.cmd 01;32 # executables (bright green)
.exe 01;32
.com 01;32
.btm 01;32
.bat 01;32
.sh  01;32
.csh 01;32
.tar 04;31 # archives or compressed (bright red)
.tgz 04;31
.arj 04;31
.taz 04;31
.lzh 04;31
.zip 04;31
.z   04;31
.Z   04;31
.gz  04;31
.bz2 04;31
.bz  04;31
.tz  04;31
.rpm 04;31
.cpio 04;31
.jpg 01;35 # image formats
.gif 01;35
.bmp 01;35
.xbm 01;35
.xpm 01;35
.png 01;35
.tif 01;35
.eps 01;35 # additional image formats
.xcf 01;35
 
(once I had figured out where this file was I could finally
colorize the last two image formats).

I have no idea how difficult it would be to program this in,
sorry. I can
imagine pitfalls, like compatibility with MS-excel (which my
spouse
would insist on: I've not yet been able to convert her to
the True Faith).

Hope this gives you some ideas. I love OO! (user since about
2000 or so,
of StarOffice (?))

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