[Solved] No backspace key on mac - one key deletion ?

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ak61
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[Solved] No backspace key on mac - one key deletion ?

Post by ak61 »

Hi everyone - just a quick question that I have had little luck in searching with google.
I use a mac, and open office for mac, and when I want to simply delete a cell content it seems I have to hold down the Fn key then the delete key.
I guess this simulates a windows/linux backspace key to satisfy open office which seems to be ported across to a mac.
Which is fair enough, and can understand that.
However, as some one who tries to operate a pen or pencil in one hand while number crunching, it is awkward having to work the two keys while making notes.
To suit my peculiar work efficiencies, is there a work around so I can just hit one key ?
With a google search there seems to be a way, but then I would have to download an earlier copy of open office to make the example work, due to the number of older open office version references out there, and the differences between open office versions (and perhaps I might not be too bright with these things anyway). I would like to use open office as it is faster than excel 2008, especially as I have spreadsheets with 250,000 forumlas and need the real time results. But this method of key manipulation is really about as useful to me as a third nostril and am concerned I may have to go back and try to find a way to make my excel2008 calculations faster.
Would any kind soul care to assist me here ?

Thankyou.
Regards
Adrian
Last edited by ak61 on Fri Apr 02, 2010 9:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
Open office 3.20
Mac Os/x 10.6.3
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Hagar Delest
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Re: No backspace key on mac - one key cell contents deletion

Post by Hagar Delest »

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Does it help: [Solved] Calc 'Edit Cell' shortcut for OOo 3.0 and iMac?

Thanks to add '[Solved]' at beginning of your first post title (edit button) if your issue has been fixed.
LibreOffice 7.6.2.1 on Xubuntu 23.10 and 7.6.4.1 portable on Windows 10
ak61
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Apr 01, 2010 9:31 pm
Location: Perth, Western Australia

Re: No backspace key on mac - one key cell contents deletion

Post by ak61 »

Thankyou for the welcome, Hagar, and Gday back to you.
I checked the link, and have seen similar before in my googling, and some graphically, and could not locate anything that resembled a backspace key to change to a delete key.
One thing though, I am also trialling Neooffice as well and found out that does use the Mac delete keys.
Now, if it would use all the cores of my cpu, and have coloured sheet tabs, I'd be as happy as a pig in poo.
Cant have it all, though, and am satisified with this variation of open office (so far, fingers crossed)

At this point, would I place solved on the beginning of my first post ?

Cheers,
Adrian
Open office 3.20
Mac Os/x 10.6.3
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Hagar Delest
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Re: No backspace key on mac - one key cell contents deletion

Post by Hagar Delest »

Coloured sheets tabs is a feature that has been requested, see [Issue] Changing TAB / text colours in Calc.

For the Solved tag, up to you. If NeoOffice suits your need, I would say it's solved (the coloured sheets tab is another question). But you can report it if you want it to be supported by the standard OOo version: [Tutorial] Reporting bugs or suggestions.
LibreOffice 7.6.2.1 on Xubuntu 23.10 and 7.6.4.1 portable on Windows 10
ak61
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Apr 01, 2010 9:31 pm
Location: Perth, Western Australia

Re: No backspace key on mac - one key cell contents deletion

Post by ak61 »

Hi again.

Yes will note this as solved, by using NeoOffice.
I checked the link to the new features, and read that it may appear soon.

One note for others that might read this post, in my endeavours to find the right flavour of Openoffice to move away from excel2008, there is one more variation called Go-office.
That does coloured sheet tabs - but also lacks the simple delete key (backspacing) on the mac keyboard as does Open Office.

The backspacing feature of using NeoOffice is most useful, and saves using two steps to delete the contents of a cell.
NeoOffice seemed to have found it is a necessery item for Mac Users at version 3.0.2 - maybe earlier to have a one key cell contents deletion.
I like that, shows they care.
Neooffice also keeps the "frozen" lines where the window scrolls on each sheet of the spreadsheet after loading the excel file and saving as ODF.
Go -office does none of these features above , only teases with the coloured tabs.

NeoOffice will be a fine solution and costs only a reasonable donation.

Cheers,
Adrian
Open office 3.20
Mac Os/x 10.6.3
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Hagar Delest
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Re: No backspace key on mac - one key cell contents deletion

Post by Hagar Delest »

ak61 wrote:NeoOffice will be a fine solution and costs only a reasonable donation.
I thought it was only requested to get help from their own forum.
LibreOffice 7.6.2.1 on Xubuntu 23.10 and 7.6.4.1 portable on Windows 10
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