Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 42247
an unchanging date stamp, time stamp, filename stamp, path stamp are all needed by the world
Last modified: 2013-08-07 15:12:27 UTC
Hi, One of the most annoying problems found in nearly every commercial software package for ANY type of program, whether its a word processor, spreadsheet, database, presentation, graphics, CAD, specialized, programming language, is the fact that they NEVER seem to offer a TIME STAMP and DATE STAMP function. At least one that isn't broken down into its programming components that you're supposed to somehow try and figure it out. Of course no one ever can ever figure out HOW to create an unchanging DATE STAMP on a spreadsheet or document because date and time functions in commercial software packages are always monsterously hard to use, and monsterously hard to work with, and absolutely RIDICULOUS to try and figure out. (* please seem my comment at the end, after my signature.) This kind of thing, working with ANY commercial or free software has been my experience for over 20 years of having worked with computers. The only place I know where this happens is in the microsoft notepad.exe program when you use the ".LOG" feature typed at the top of the page. And even discovering that this feature is available is practically impossible becuase who in the WORLD would ever think that a date and time stamp would be called "Log". It just makes no sense in the real world (although I do know that it makes sense in the programming world.) But, of course, when you go to a spreadsheet the LOG function means the logarithm, and when you go to the date and time functions you enter a wonderland of functions that seem to make no sense and requires an artist to wizardly weave them into a magic spell that produces some sort of date and time that is correct for the problem and STILL it must be formatted. But, please let me be clear here. What I mean by DATE STAMP is that it is a function that inserts the current date at the time the function is first run, but then does NOT change it to the current date the next time the function is run. This gives the effect (if it were an old-fashioned ink and stamp pad that people used to use to stamp "Received" or "Paid" or anything else they wanted onto a sheet of paper) of "stamping" the current date into the formula. A "stamp" ing of the date that DOESNT CHANGE in future recalculations of that formula. It would only change if something else in the formula was change OR (and maybe this is a better idea) if the cell contents were deleted and the sell was again a "virgin" and you were starting its use all over again. All this that works for date stamp should also be made availabe for a time stamp too, as well as a current file name stamp and a current file location stamp. If these four things were added as real functions that worked in the spreadsheet and were NOT CONFUSING to use and didn't require anything but the formatting and were NOT an add-in, you would have something to offer that no other program offers right now. Check me out on this. If you ask anybody, ANYBODY, anywhere, this issue is one that always inflames the user and is always frustating and ONLY comes up when someone is already in the middle of doing something else and needs it fast only to discover its just something all programmers seem to have avoided providing to everyday users in a simple way, but usually not at all. Were you to add these, your program would be better than any other program that exists today in any catagory of end-user programs. Ask around. Ask everyday office workers. Ask them and if you ask them correctly so that they understand what you're asking they will explode with irritation for a problem that has gone unaddressed by the software community during its ENTIRE HISTORY of providing help to the everyday computer user who uses their computer for their work and not for programming. Thank you for listening. I hope you will add these four functions into the main spreadsheet program, and into any other program where one can insert functions, including the text and database programs, as well as your function builder. Johnnie Miller Dallas, Texas Disgrunteled Office Worker Annoyed With ALL Spreadsheet Programs That Exist In the World Today as of: [..\\#ooops, could have used a DATE STAMP and TIME STAMP right here, one that DIDN'T CHANGE every time you opened this inquiry... ] * (Often the software does provide a way, by requiring you bump up to its "programming language". Of course no everyday user who has a job doing something other than programming has the time and/or the ability to figure out all that crap on the fly when their boss is yelling at them to get some special report out for their board of directors... for example, the "dim" statement? give me a break. It is a stupid name. It took me forever to figure out what it meant. The concept is simple, but the concept is never presented, only the stupid abbrev "dim" that is sooooooooooooo confusing to anybody. Just look at the three letters in the command "dim", they spell the word 'dim'. This is just STUPID. For visual people the word 'dim' implys "more difficult to see then most things". Hence, using the word "dim" as the name with which to define a variable is stupid, because all the other definitions associated with the word "dim" imply things like difficult to see (which can also have a metaphoricial meaning meaning hard to understand), or might be short for any number of words like dimension, or dime, or diminish, or diminutive, or dimorphous, or dimple, or even -once you begin to discover how crazily named most programming words are- dim sum, cause who knows, maybe 'dim' is short for 'dim sum' which, in the real world is a food, but in this case of programming it could possible be a summary of all the dim's, or the result of the adding together of all the dim's into a dim sum, or whatever the some such gibbersh. Who knows? The everyday user is constantly confonted with too many programming code words which mean nothing but with which the programmers think they have "helped" the everyday user. Everyday users simply can't use most of these programming modes you get bumped up to use for simple tasks that the programmers didn't feel like researching to discover exist or just don't want to bother with. Why? Because they can, like an artist, see the code and see it for what it is, elements to create something. Much like paints to a painter or wood to a builder or anyone who creates. But everyday users don't see these "helpful" programming modules they get bumped up to when they want to do something routine as an exciting colorful pallette of colorful opportunity, as a computer programming artist would see them. Instead they see them as a monsterous mish-mash of gibberish that means nothing, has no help (or stupid help that doesn't define anything, or help that never suggests how one might build something helpful...i.e. if you've never seen a house before but you know you need to get out of the rain and you've been given a pile of wood and some nails, how do you know that it is a HOUSE that you need to build and how do you know HOW to build it and how do you even IMAGINE it. The functions must be named something reasonable for the language that the user speaks, NOT be an abbreviation of another word, NOT be something that inadvertantly spells out another word from the users language which might have other means or connotations, and which MUST have a real and complete definition, GOOD examples (of which there should be at least 10 and no more than 20), and just simply pass the all-around "this makes sense in the real world cause end-users not people paid to program computers will be using it" test. Little help?)
requirements.
OpenOffice.org Issue Tracker - Feedback Request. The Issue you raised is currently assigned to 'Requirements' pending review, but has not been updated within the last 3 years. Please consider re-testing with one of the latest versions of OOo, as the problem(s) may have already been addressed. Either use the recent stable version: http://download.openoffice.org/index.html or consider trying the new OOo 3 BETA (still in testing): http://download.openoffice.org/3.0beta/ Please report back the outcome so this Issue may be Closed or Progressed as necessary - otherwise it may be Resolved as Invalid in the future. You may also wish to search for (and note) any duplicates of this Issue that may have advanced further by checking the Issue Tracker: http://www.openoffice.org/issues/query.cgi Many thanks, Andrew Cleaning-up and Closing old Issues as part of: ~ The Grand Bug Squash, pre v3 ~ http://marketing.openoffice.org/3.0/announcementbeta.html