Spreadsheets: Show Formulas/Formula View

[Begench]

Dear OnlyOffice,

Hello.

Apologies if this is question was raised previously but I need to be able to switch to ‘formula view’ also known as ‘show formulas’ function. Without it I simply cannot work in spreadsheets.

In other words, I need to see the formula itself instead of the end values.

I can’t find this function anywhere. In MS Excel, there is a shortcut ctrl+`.

Does OnlyOffice has this function? Is there any shortcut I can use?

I use the latest version of OnlyOffice Desktop Editors on Windows and Linux as of right now.

Looking forward to your help.

Thank you.

[Nikolas]

Hey, @Begench, unfortunately, this feature ain’t available in our editor right now. We’re aware of this drawback and we’re trying to implement it within the scope of suggestion 59811.

I’ve added your request to mentioned suggestion.
Can I ask you to provide a few examples of how you use this feature so that I can better understand your needs as a user?

[Begench]

Hello Nikolas,

Thank you for the remarkable work you are doing for the open source community.

I am saddened but not surprised. I realized quite quickly that this feature is completely absent.

Let me explain the significance of that feature.

If you are not familiar with hotel room price calculation, it is always base rate for the room plus extras. Base rate and extras vary with seasonality of hotels. Moreover, extras vary depending on room configuration: number of adults, number of children, meal plan, extra bed or not and so forth. So, in other words, you have huge tables that are full of formula to reach the net price per room per night for particular date and room configuration. I cannot simply drag/copy the formula across the entire table. I have to carefully review each price calculation.

Question is how I am supposed to review walls of formula if I don’t have formula view option? I do not calculate each hotel booking individually, my company has thousands of bookings each day through automated price distribution system. I only calculate the net prices for each possible date and room configuration through spreadsheets. Reviewing each formula by selecting/focusing the cell is just not an option.

Due to certain reasons, I was working for a short period of time from home, and I couldn’t recommend OnlyOffice to any of my colleagues (who were working from home as well) because without formula view I by myself couldn’t do much in spreadsheets.

Overall, working with formula, adding changes to calculations without seeing formula right away (instead of final results/values) is ridiculously tedious to the point that I wouldn’t try to do that.

Even when I simply calculate my personal finance it is needed to ensure the final numbers are right. I do not have to check whether the final value is correct or not, I just have to make sure that the formula is correct.

I do hope you understand. As a matter of fact, this is quite literally the only reason why I cannot use OnlyOffice for work and the only reason why I cannot recommend OnlyOffice to dozen of my colleagues. I wanted to recommend your office suite to the guy responsible for almost the entire IT in my company so that maybe he will consider switching from MS Office on our computers but again even I can’t accomplish what is needed with OnlyOffice.

I hope you will consider prioritizing this feature/function in future releases:)

Until then.

[Nikolas]

Thank you for the detailed information.
Personally, I express my gratitude for taking the time to provide a detailed response.
I’ll pass this information along to my colleagues.

[Mayca]

Hello, i am very interesting, is there any news of this cuestion (‘show formulas’ function). Thank you.

[MKVRC]

Plus 1 from my side…

Please provide an option for the following…

Please provide an option for the following…. identifying the filters (marking filters with a different color) Syntax highlighting (highlighting using a different color) Show formulas (highlighting using a different color) Thanks, MK

[Nikolas]

Hello, @MKVRC @Mayca @Begench very soon (literally today), we will be releasing ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors v7.5.
Based on the latest information, the issue should be fixed!

[MKVRC]

Hi Nikolas,

Thank you for the notification and update. But Syntax or value highlighting is not provided in version 7.5

Please provide an option for the following…

Please provide an option for the following…. identifying the filters (marking filters with a different color) Syntax highlighting (highlighting using a different color) Show formulas (highlighting using a different color) Thanks, MK

When show formulas option is used column size widens almost by double…seems like a bug to me

I am on Mac OS Monterey 12.7

[Nikolas]

Hi @MKVRC

@MKVRC

When show formulas option is used column size widens almost by double…seems like a bug to me

This behavior is considered correct

@MKVRC

But Syntax or value highlighting is not provided in version 7.5

We thought that this pertained to our implemented features:
Trace Dependents/ Trace Precedents

[MKVRC]

Hi Nikolas,

especially when adjacent columns with no formula or role widen by double how this is correct? please explain

To know what i mean by Syntax or value highlighting please use Libreoffice or softmaker free office…

what is mean to say is for example in any cell if i use formula like "=sum(1+2) it will result in 3 as answer, when Syntax or value highlighting is highlighted this value will be highlighted. which helps in knowing where the formula is used.

[Nikolas]

@MKVRC

especially when adjacent columns with no formula or role widen by double how this is correct? please explain

The situation is as follows:

We are adding this functionality, and it works similarly to MS Excel’s editor.

1. Differences in behavior when using our editor could negatively impact the user experience.
2. The absence of additional expenses for calculations (determining which columns need to be expanded).

@MKVRC

To know what i mean by Syntax or value highlighting please use Libreoffice or softmaker free office…

what is mean to say is for example in any cell if i use formula like "=sum(1+2) it will result in 3 as answer, when Syntax or value highlighting is highlighted this value will be highlighted. which helps in knowing where the formula is used.

Yes, I’ve finally understood your idea.
Providing links to similar features in other editors (which assists developers) or YouTube videos with timestamps, or creating your own can greatly enhance productivity. Searching on one’s own can sometimes be quite time-consuming.

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P.S.
I wanted to add one more thing.
One suggestion per topic makes it convenient for the community (for us).

[MKVRC]

Providing links to similar features in other editors (which assists developers) or YouTube videos with timestamps, or creating your own can greatly enhance productivity. Searching on one’s own can sometimes be quite time-consuming.

• I had provided snapshots from both Libreoffice & Softmaker free office. But to know the exact functionality one must have to use either of these…good to know you understood the option

[Nikolas]

@MKVRC
We have registered you suggestion to add the option to enable color highlighting of arguments and formula results.

Unfortunately, in the nearest future we are not planning on implementing such feature into our spreadsheet Editor.

Thanks for your suggestion.

[MKVRC]

@Nikolas

Thank you for the update