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Input Line in calc does not auto expand

Asked by Nic Knox

When manipulating a long string or formula it makes it very difficult to see where you are unless the whole of the cell content is displayed in the box at the end of the Formula Bar [the Input Line]. I can find no mechanism to trigger auto expansion to allow all the data to be seen. How's it done?

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Tony Pursell
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Best Tony Pursell (ajpursell) said : 		#1

Hi Nic

There is no 'auto expansion'.

Click on the f(x) symbol. The formula box there is much bigger.

Tony

PS If this answers your question, please mark it as Solved.

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Nic Knox (baknox) said : 		#2

Thanks, but just trying to clarify with another user who told me theirs does expand.
The f(x) tip is very useful for formulae but no good for text - then perhaps I'm an abuser of spreadsheets?!

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Tony Pursell (ajpursell) said : 		#3

Hi Nic

He may be confused with the way things actually work.

If you have a lot of text in a cell, then highlight the cell, the contents of the cell appear in the Input Line (this is the correct name for it).

If you then click on the input line to edit it, the text in the cell is shown in full on the spreadsheet, and any changes you make in the Input Line are immediately shown in this expanded vie of the text. The same happens when you double click a cell with more text in it than can be shown.

Tony

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Nic Knox (baknox) said : 		#4

Thanks for the useful reply - The other formula box is better for big formulae but of course no use for text - not your fault the answer's less than useful!

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Tony Pursell (ajpursell) said : 		#5

Hi Nic

You can see an expansion of what is in the Input Line whether it is text or formula.

If it is a formula, clicking on f(x) gives you the expansion.

if it is text, the expansion is given automatically in the body of the spreadsheet when you click on the cell to edit it.

Tony

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Nic Knox (baknox) said : 		#6

Thanks Tony,

You just don't know how picky I'm being!
The advantage of an auto-expanded Input Line is speed and certainty because you do nothing, the program just does it when the cell's selected and its always in the same place separated by a border.

The solutions you provide [which work perfectly of course] require manipulation and, with text, the expansion is rather muddled up with any other text in adjacent cells.

OK, this is picky, but excel does it so I'm used to it. I'll live with this slightly lower functionality until [if] someone at OO sees to it - but I expect they're busy! I'm using F2 to expand the cells in the meantime.

Thanks for your interest.

Nic