Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 62217
Moving cells in and out of formula references, yet leaving the formula unchanged
Last modified: 2013-02-07 22:32:17 UTC
I'd like to stop formula references from changing so that a normal cut-n-paste action of cells containing values for the will leave the formula unchanged. That was a poor description. Here's an example to clarify: If I have a formula, =A1+A2, and I cut-n-paste A2 to A3, the formula automagically becomes =A1+A3. That action normal, as the help says, "Formulas, however, are always adjusted accordingly." And most of the time it is very, very helpful. However, in some cases it gets in the way and it would be necessary to leave the formula unchanged. The result I would to have is a way to protect the formula so that if I the same formula, =A1+A2, and I cut-n-paste A2 to A3, the formula stays =A1+A2 rather than changing to =A1+A3. The option to protect the formula would be useful in many contexts, one of which is having forms with occasional manual actions at certain points of the workflow.
according to http://qa.openoffice.org/issue_handling/workflowcharts/ RFE_issues_by_QA.sxd I reassign this issue to requirements and set the status to New
Copying instead of cutting seems to do what you want (you may also want to delete A2). And it would be faster than setting an option, cut-n-paste and then clear the option. Except in rare cases involving multiple displacement of cells, I am not sure that it is really helpful to add another option (in fact, it is a mode).