Multi-grid sheets ?

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fadi
Posts: 13
Joined: Fri Oct 20, 2023 6:52 pm

Multi-grid sheets ?

Post by fadi »

This is a major feature suggestion but can sheets be made to support more than one grid. Each grid should have its name and can support its own filtering and sorting operations . This is similar to mac numbers and rows.com . Grids could be resized to fit the table you are creating and when printing you can select which grid could be included in the print. Grids do not need to be movable like the case with mac numbers, rather listed above each other. Currently all spreadsheet apps follow the excel model, one endless grid that can be used unfortunately for only one table. One way to achieve this is by creating a parallel experimental version. The idea is that grids could complement each other in terms of information . One can grow endlessly while the other could provide analytics.
Last edited by fadi on Sun Jul 28, 2024 8:40 pm, edited 2 times in total.
fadi
Posts: 13
Joined: Fri Oct 20, 2023 6:52 pm

Re: Multi-grid sheets ?

Post by fadi »

Another idea that would complement the first one is that a workbook should be able to contain hundreds of sheets but they are not all loaded into the ram when you open the workbook, unless you designate a certain sheet to be loaded on startup. Instead it should load a sheet browser that functions like a file manager with each sheet having its own icon. You should be able to group them by letter or create groups and subgroups and direct your sheets to them . When you open a sheet , it is loaded into the ram and its tab is shown, but when all sheets are closed only the sheet browser is shown . This would allow a better ram consumption.To achieve this I believe the plus sign next to sheet tabs would be replaced by an icon to the sheet browser, and sheet tabs would include close buttons
fadi
Posts: 13
Joined: Fri Oct 20, 2023 6:52 pm

Re: Multi-grid sheets ?

Post by fadi »

Also you may have to introduce more relative cell reference ,next to the current method of course , such as B-first, B-last , an B@row. Last in particular would be very useful for mult-grid design since users would continually add more rows to grids. For analytics in the second grid, for example, you will have to put something like : secondgrid.B4=sum(firstgrid.B3:firstgrid.B-last) for calculating sum, and for average it would be : secondgrid.B6=average(firstgrid.B3:firstgrid.B-last) , and so on.
raitis.veksejs
SoftMaker Team
SoftMaker Team
Posts: 127
Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2017 1:29 am

Re: Multi-grid sheets ?

Post by raitis.veksejs »

Thank you for your feature requests! I forwarded them to our Product Management...
fadi
Posts: 13
Joined: Fri Oct 20, 2023 6:52 pm

Re: Multi-grid sheets ?

Post by fadi »

I will continue to add more ideas to this thread if you don't mind. Perhaps one or two may inspire the dev team.

Another way to implement the multi grid idea in a simple manner is, Instead of having more than one grid per screen, you should have more than one screen per sheet, each screen featuring only one grid . The screens would be listed in the sidebar and you can jump between them via clicking.

I believe grids should always be limited . When you start a screen/grid it should always open with a standard grid that extends horizontally until , say column K, and vertically until, say row 20 . And you can refer to last cell in the column as K(last) or K20. Or even 20(last), from a horizontal perspective. And you can easily extend the grid via plus signs at the ends of it.
Limited grids are a lot smarter than unlimited grids from a user point of view and also a developer's.

When you decide to pull down a formula till the end, you should be able to right click the cross sign and a dialogue box appears and you could enter K(last) , for example, as the cell the formula is dragged to , which means as long as you add rows via the plus sign to extend the grid, the formula will be dragged along to K(last).

When you add the filter/sort icon its range would be more defined with the existence of a last cell.The range, by default, would start from cell right under it till the last cell in the column, unless you establish a footer area. In unlimited grids, the range is not defined enough.

Another icon in tools ribbon should allow to designate a row as the start of the footer region, which should be excluded from the filter/sort ranges .Any rows you insert before that row is included in the filter/sort region and, after it , in the footer area , excluded from the effects of filter/sort.The last cell in the filter/sort range would always be the cell right above the footer range.
Filter/sort ranges should not allow for merged cells while footer regions allow for such things.

When you insert a row(s), you should right click a row and two options should appear in the menu : insert a no. of rows above , and insert a no. of rows below . And by clicking on any, a dialogue box appears asking you for the number of rows you want to add. And of course likewise for columns.

And of course, when printing , you could decide which screens are included in the print and which are not.

Multiple screens per sheet, each one featuring one limited grid , would allow for richer and smarter workbooks without significantly redesigning the tools. Each workbook would be made of multiple sheets horizontally , and each sheet would be made of multiple micro sheets vertically in the form of screens.
The earlier idea of sheet browser/manager may complement it as well.
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