Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

I'm having an issue with the way that Calc pastes chart objects. In other spreadsheet programmes I've used (e.g. M$ Office, Libre office) copying/pasting a chart into the same document duplicates the chart and references the same data as the original chart object. You can then quickly and easily reuse the same chart by changing the source data range.

Calc pastes the chart as an embedded object that comes with it's own 'chart data table' and doesn't reference the underlying data in the spreadsheet. I can see the value when pasting charts into different programmes or even different spreadsheets, however this makes little sense and creates redundancy when it's the same worksheet. I've tried 'paste special' and none of the options available do what I need. Any way to fix this ?

Calc OO 4.1.2 on win 7.

To be able to paste a chart also into a different document not containing the data themselves (another Calc document, a Writer or a Draw/Impress document) it must be copied together with the data (contained in the chart's 'Data Table...' then). Otherwise the references would need to change into external ones (very differently handled). Only if it subsequently is pasted into the document from which it originated the chart's data references make sense (and might then be edited).

I cannot tell you for all the versions of ODF conformant software, but recent versions of LibreOffice do it the way you obviously expect if applicable (underlined case above). AOO 4.1.2 does not.

You may be interested in this recent thread in another forum: http://en.libreofficeforum.org/node/12144. Do not miss my second answer there. The example attached there was created copying charts together with the references and subsquently editing these. (You can see the result but not reproduce its creation with AOO, as already mentioned.)

Thanks for your reply. My search-fu must have been a bit off yesterday morning as I managed to find a solution later in the day but had to wait until my question was approved by a moderator before I could edit it.

My question was pasting a chart into the document from which it originated. To achieve the same in AOO simply hold down 'ctrl' and drag the chart you want to duplicate. Calc will then make a replica of the original chart (instead of embedding a copy with a data table) and you can then right click on it and choose 'Data ranges' to edit them. Easy when you know how!

thanks neuralnet for this life-saving trick.

ctrl+drag a chart will indeed copy the chart in OpenOffice calc while preserving its data range (ie no conversion to internal data table), even across sheets in the same document. It's important to me as I'm used to gather all computations in one single sheet (back-end) and group most graphs in a user-friendly sheet for discussions/presentation/printing.

I whish Apache's devs would not change a basic feature as preserving data link without more care... but at least your trick makes it bearable. not user friendly but bearable.

bebs wrote:ctrl+drag a chart will indeed copy the chart in OpenOffice calc while preserving its data range (ie no conversion to internal data table), even across sheets in the same document.

How do you drag a chart across sheets in the same document?

If I try to drag a chart onto another sheet's tab (hoping that it activates the other sheet), the rows of the initial sheet just start running when the dragged item touches an edge of the cells' area.

@jokanane it scrolls on the original sheet when you are on the bottom visible row. If you want to change sheet drag a bit further to the sheet tabs.

@Richarda44 yeah that's what I'd expect, but it does not seem to work so; no matter if I try to reach the tabs slowly or by slamming the chart all the way down of the program window, the rows just keep running and the tabs section / tabs won't activate.

jokanane wrote:How do you drag a chart across sheets in the same document?

It's really just a matter of ctrl+drag. push and hold CTRL key, click and hold on your graph, go slowly down at first to see a "shadow" graph moving, then go quickly all the way down, outside of the original spreadsheet, to the "tab" of the destination spreadsheet at the bottom, it will show on top, move you mouse to the destination you want and release the mouse button.

It may take a bit of practice... or you can ask somebody else to try, or try with another computer / mouse / mousepad... to get a first grasp of the technique.

good luck !