[Issue] Page jumping around

[Margorita]

I am doing a mail merge, but this is a problem in many different situations, especially inserting pictures.

Why does OO text document move around?

I have the spreadsheet I'm using for a database open at the top of the page.
I have the document open on the bottom of the screen.
I'm trying to drag FIELDS from one to another.

I click in the cell of table into which I want a field inserted.
I go up to the spreadsheet and click on the column header I want to use as a field.
When I drag from the spreadsheet to the text document, the text document jumps up.

Its aggravating as hell!

It does the same thing when you attempt to insert a picture, or move a picture around the page.

Is there a setting somewhere that will prevent this from happening?

Lisa

[Phil]

Hi,

does maybe the thread [Issue]Scroll and jump back to cursor position help?

Maybe also check the thread Deleting graphics makes display jump.

HTH!
phil

[acknak]

Yes, OOo in general, and Writer in particular, is very poor at positioning the screen--it often moves the view in ways that are completely unhelpful. I find that I frequently have to fiddle and fight with OOo to get the screen to a merely reasonable, much less optimal, position.

Let's be sure we're talking about the same thing. This happens when you have a data source panel ("Explorer"; F4) open, and try to drag/drop a field from the data grid into the text document. The instant that the drag cursor enters the document panel, Writer begins rapidly scrolling the text document up, thus moving away from the text editing cursor and the desired drop target.

Is that right? That's what I see at any rate.

In this case (a drag and drop), Writer tries to automatically scroll the document to follow the mouse cursor--which is normally a good thing when you're dragging something within the same document--but a horrible strategy when you're dragging something in from another window.

The only workarounds I'm aware of are:

1. Drag into the document window as fast as possible--this will minimize the unwanted scrolling, but won't eliminate it.
2. Drag the item down near the bottom of the document window to scroll back down. On my system, the drag-scrolling is way too aggressive and I usually overshoot a few times; I often spend a lot of time dragging top & bottom to try and scroll the document to the correct position without releasing the mouse.
3. Just drop the field anywhere in the text document, then cut/paste it into the right place.
4. Avoid dragging over the top edge of the document window: drag the field off to the side instead of down, then enter the document window from the side. This will scroll the document side-to-side but that's usually less of a problem than up/down.

BTW: This is not the same as the cursor jumping problem discussed in the other thread. This is a drag/drop problem.

There are two issues on file for this:
Issue 33705: jumping cursor when dragging data into document (CLOSED)
Issue 53167: Automatic Scrolling Behavior (SPEC)
Neither of which seem to be getting any attention.

It might help to ask that Issue 33705 be re-opened, along with a better description of what the problem is and how to reproduce it.

The spec would solve the problem, I think, if it were ever implemented.

Edit: PS: What OS and OOo version are you using?

[Margorita]

I read the 2 places you sent me, went to the issue tracker and guess the general consensus is that this behavior is
a bug
everyone hates it
its been on the table to fix for years
nobody is fixing it

SOOOO Is there a work around?

Rather than DRAG a column to insert a merge field, can you cut and paste?


I find the Mail Merge feature odd.

I seldom use it to do addresses, or form letters, but did use mail merge in Word often for other things. But the way OO has it set up, if you aren't doing ADDRESSES or LETTERS, you have to out think the program.

Rather than call it the "Address Data Wizard" Why can't it be called data source wizard

and make the dialog less to do with addresses and more to do with inserting FIELDS

Lisa

[acknak]

SOOOO Is there a work around?

Other than the ones I mentioned? Someone else will have to step in.

There is no way to eliminate the problem, if that's what you mean.

You don't have to use any wizards or dialogs at all to do a "merge", in fact, it's the way I prefer to work, as I find the dialogs and wizards more confusing than helpful.

When you have your data table in the View > Data Sources panel, you can

• insert fields right out of the grid (which you know)
• you can drag data (selected fields or records) into the document as text or as a Writer table
• you can copy data from selected records into the document fields using the "Data to Fields" button over the data grid.

The only thing I can think of that you can't do is duplicate a master page to use as many records as selected. That requires you to use File > Print and then navigate the merge dialog.

[Margorita]

It also has something to do with something going on behind the scenes and my work around involves going more slowly. And it works too (sort of)

If you 1st place your cursor into the place you want the field to be in the text document

then.. you click in the database (spreadsheet) once,
then click the column you want to use as a field,
then click that column heading again waiting a couple of beats in between each click, it is better.

I noticed that I have the drawing toolbar open at the bottom of my screen. Each time I performed a drop & drag, it took a few seconds for the icons to refresh. If I waited until they had refreshed, the problem was minimized.

also to ad gasoline to the flames, where I want to insert the fields in my text document is in a table. And OO has problems with tables too.

I really think the cursor jumping and this problem are related and I think it has something to do with refresh rate, or something like that. I'm not a programmer, but I have noticed that several things in OO you have to wait between actions.

an example...On this text doc we are discussing, I wound up with 17 tables. I wanted 17 independent files, so I saved the doc 16 more times each with heading of that particular table.

Then I went back into each file & deleted everything except that table.

In every instance, the 1st paragraph wound up not being the same style as the rest of the document. So I could use the paint brush to get the style from the paragraph below, and paste it over the 1st paragraph mark. If I went too fast, I noticed that it wouldn't paste the style (or the paintbrush wasn't it copying the style). But if I waited for the icons in the drawing toolbar to refresh after deleting the other 16 pages, then did the paintbrush, then did the past it worked everytime.

Lisa

OO2.4.0
Windows 2K SP4