[Solved] Show ruler in Calc

[skipper]

I am using version 3.2.1; under Win7 -32

I can't find a way to display the Ruler. I have column Headers and Row numbers.
I checked the Help topic, there is a procedure there but I can't find the suggested
VIEW / Ruler.
I can get the ruler in Writer, but not Calc.

I am sure that I am missing something obvious.

Skipper.

[Hagar Delest]

I've never seen any ruler in Calc (even in MS Excel). What would be the point?

Note that the help is not limited to the current component, it can display sections about other components.

Thanks to add '[Solved]' at beginning of your first post title (edit button) if your issue has been fixed.

[acknak]

There is a lot of good information in the online help, but you have to be a little suspicious: the help often mixes information specific to one OOo application in with help for the others. It can be confusing, if not misleading.

For example, if you open Calc and press F1, you should get information on using Calc, but if you look in the index under "ruler", you find "rulers;default settings", "rulers;measurement units" and "rulers;visible in presentations"--even though Calc has no rulers at all. The actual help text, if you click on those topics, doesn't say anything about rulers at all. In other cases, you may get some help text that applies to a different application[*].

It's rather embarrassingly fouled up, in my opinion, but it doesn't mean that the help is no good; it's just something you have to be aware of.

PS: [*]As when (I just noticed) you double-click on "rulers;visible in presentations": you get a help page that only applies to Impress presentations. Nothing to do with Calc whatsoever.

[ps.opoff]

I've never seen any ruler in Calc (even in MS Excel). What would be the point?

per Microsoft: "Microsoft Office Excel 2007 provides a horizontal and vertical ruler in the Page Layout view, and you can use these rulers to measure the width and height of items in a worksheet. By default, the rulers use the measurement units that are specified for your computer's operating system, but you can change the units to inches, centimeters, or millimeters."

I can think of several applications. The most obvious is in creating a form, possibly interactive like a check register, where it's necessary for the printed page to be a certain size.

[anscarlett]

Thanks to add '[Solved]' at beginning of your first post if your issue has been fixed.

Why did the get marked as [Solved]? Misleading results from search engines. Surely there should be a label for [Not Implemented] or the like?

[Hagar Delest]

Well, the question has been answered: there is no ruler.

If someone wants one, then you need to file a request: [Tutorial] Reporting bugs or suggestions. I agree it can be somewhat misleading.

[GuccizBud]

I've never seen any ruler in Calc (even in MS Excel). What would be the point?

For placing added images on the page at the exact spot you want it to appear at, which is maybe ¼ of the way across the page or maybe ¾, for one thing. By "images" it could be something as simple as a decorative separator, either at the end or in between sections. The way I get around the (somewhat surprising) lack of rulers is by adding a few throwaway rows, merging all the cells from left to right, seeing what that "column" measures, marking the spot I want (again, could be ¼ of the way, or ¾, or wtv) with the edge of a Post-it® I physically stick onto my display, and finally deleting the throwaway rows I had created, now that I found the spot I wanted. Answer your question?

If a program allows you to choose the size you want of every column in your file, using your choice of measurement system whether inches or cm, and this functionality is accessible right there up front, without even the need to access the menus for it (think about it), then it isn't any kind of a stretch — at all — for the program to also have the option of a simple graduated ruler appearing at the top for quick visual reference, like Microsoft WordPad — not Word, WordPad — has.

[Hagar Delest]

I still don't really see the point for a spreadsheet, a text document could be better.
You can also use drawing shapes to make the fine tuning. You can set their width very precisely.

[Richarda44]

I looked for "ruler" in calc too and soon realised it is only in the other modules (Draw and maybe Writer) As I am often trying to fit spreadsheets with or without photos onto A4 paper, I use the two most useful tools for this under "Page Preview: 1st the "Margins" button when you can manually drag all the margins and cell widths dynamically. And 2nd if that does not do it I use the "Format Page" button then the "Sheet" tab where there are all sorts of scaling options both automatic and manual.

What a fantastic community programme we have !

[ebeeman]

I often use the ruler in MSExcel to make changes to margin formatting in the page preview mode so I'll explain why this ruler feature would be useful.

If I have several pages that are being printed in a particular spreadsheet, from different sheets within the spreadsheet, I would then use the margin resizing feature (via mouse click & hold) to get the pages to fit properly. I often use "fit to pages or pages" to get a form to print properly and look right. The data across sheets has similar formatting but different content (row values & headers vary). If I want these sheets to print consistently (say with the header and page sizing to be similar), then I often need the margins and sizing to be consistent across sheets. While doing this operation, I will check the margin value while dynamically modifying the margin location with my mouse click/hold/slide routine. Once margin is set and looking right, I read the value from ruler and I can then make sure each sheet within spreadsheet matches that margin value.

Of course, maybe there are better ways to do this but this is how I would use a ruler in Calc if it existed.

Found this thread after I was trying to do the above operation for one of my spreadsheets. My workaround is to check margin value found on page preview>format page. Then, I page to next sheet and check the other margin value. Modify as appropriate, repeat as needed.

Hope this helps.

[PencilGal]

The point would be knowing without trying over and over again whether you can print a spreadsheet on one page. There are likely other reasons as well. Wouldn't be asking if there weren't a good reason.

I've never seen any ruler in Calc (even in MS Excel). What would be the point?

Note that the help is not limited to the current component, it can display sections about other components.

Thanks to add '[Solved]' at beginning of your first post title (edit button) if your issue has been fixed.

[FJCC]

View -> Page Break View shows how many pages will be needed to print the sheet. You can also shrink the scaling to fit on a certain number of pages using the menu Format -> Page -> Sheet. Do those meet your needs?

[Hagar Delest]

I reread again this old topic and first the level of information at the beginning was very poor and second, I understand that it was not about the ruler in the preview mode but in the normal view, to precisely position objects in the page.

If the question is about preview mode to know if the content fits a single page, then there are options as FJCC said above.

[D.Bugger]

Just stumbled upon this page, also looking for a ruler in Calc. We're a flippin' *fourteen* years later and there's still no ruler in Calc?? Really...

A client of mine uses a Calc sheet to do some label printing, and I wanted to find out the dimensions of one label, which spans multiple rows and columns. No way! Can't be done! There's a suggestion in the LibreOffice forum to use a grid... so sad...

[Hagar Delest]

It may be more suited to print labels with Writer.

[MrProgrammer]

… I wanted to find out the dimensions of one label, which spans multiple rows and columns. No way! Can't be done!

Enable View → Toolbars → Drawing. Use the Rectangle tool (3rd icon from left) to draw a rectangle around the cells. Perhaps use Format → Graphic → Area → Area → Fill → None → OK so you can see the content inside the rectangle. Now you can use Format → Graphic → Position and Size to see the height and width dimensions. This is probably more accurate than you could get with a wished-for ruler. The rectangle is not connected in any way to the cells and will not follow them if they move or change their size, but you can determine the dimensions as requested. Select the rectangle and press the Delete key to remove it when it's not needed.

A client of mine uses a Calc sheet to do some label printing …

LOL. If the goal is to create labels, Calc is the wrong component. This is like using a hammer to drive screws and finding that this is quite difficult. Create labels using File → New → Labels.
Writer Guide Chapter 11: Using Mail Merge for form letters, mailing labels, and envelopes

If you need additional assistance with your labels, D.Bugger, please create your own topic. Requests for further assistance to you in this topic will be removed because it belongs to skipper. Do not post in a topic belonging to someone else unless you are providing assistance with their problem.

[D.Bugger]

It may be more suited to print labels with Writer.

Exactly what I was doing, that's why I needed exact sizes.

Now you can use Format → Graphic → Position and Size to see the height and width dimensions.

Will be tested tomorrow. Thanks!!

[Hagar Delest]

Exactly what I was doing, that's why I needed exact sizes.

Then what is the link with Calc???
What prevents Writer from printing the labels?

[D.Bugger]

I'll explain:
- my client used Calc to create some labels
- the contents of these labels are filled in programmatically and then printed
- I want to recreate them using Writer
- I don't have physical access to these labels, I have no printer nor do I have access to a printer
- I need to have the exact sizes of these labels
- there's a great number of table cells used to make these labels
- my question therefore: how can I measure the size of those labels without having to print them?

Plus clair comme ça ?

[robleyd]

Thinking outside the box, is it possible your client can help you with the size of the label?

[D.Bugger]

Oh, yes, certainly, but I didn't want to disturb them for something silly... I can also preview a print at 100% or 101%, matching the page size exactly, and then use a ruler on my screen. Or take a screen shot and use Gimp to measure sizes. Don't worry, I'll get there, but IMHO that's all beside the point: why are there still no rulers in Calc? I can live without them, but it seems an interesting feature that's been requested several times over the years.

[D.Bugger]

Now you can use Format → Graphic → Position and Size to see the height and width dimensions.

Genius!!

[Hagar Delest]

Excellent!
Thus we now have a good workaround to replace the ruler: using shapes either to provide a position by a corner with width and height or to get the dimensions of a range of cells in the sheet.