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Gaffer 0.58.6 : Spreadsheet Improvements

Gaffer 0.58.6.0 brings with it a host of improvements to the Spreadsheet node:

  • Multi-editing.
  • Copy & Paste of cell values, or rows between spreadsheets.
  • Keyboard shortcuts.

To support these features, editing is now achieved via double click. Read on to learn more about these changes.

Multi selection

Single click to select, double click to edit.

In order to support copy, paste and multi-edit, you can now select cells. This is done with a single click. You can use the <shift> and <ctrl> modifiers to extend an existing selection.

In order to edit the value in a cell, you now need a double click.

With these changes, and the new keyboard shortcuts, it should behave in largely the same fashion as a traditional spreadsheet such as Excel.

Shortcuts and actions in the context menu now operate on all of the selected cells.

Multi editing

When you have one or more cells of the same type selected, you can edit them together. There are two ways to do this:

  • Right-click and choose Edit Cells...
  • Press the <return> key on the keyboard

tip

You can edit cells across multiple rows or columns, as long as they are of the same type.

Copy and Paste

Cells

The values of the selected cells can now be copied and pasted between rows, columns, or even different spreadsheets. As long as the types of the target cells match what is on the clipboard, you will be able to paste.

If there are more target cells than there is data, the clipboard contents will be repeated so all cells have a new value.

info

The Copy and Paste menu items will be disabled if the current cell selection has inconsistent types or the target cells are’t compatible with the data on the clipboard.

Rows

You can copy and paste entire rows too. In the right-click menu of a row’s name field (the left most column), choose Copy Rows. When pasting, new rows are always created.

You can paste rows into a different spreadsheet as long as at least one column matches the source spreadsheet. Columns are matched by name. Any additional columns in the target spreadsheet will take their default values, any missing columns will be ignored.

Tips

Disabling/enabling rows

If you need to quickly turn on/off multiple rows, <shift> or <control> click the enabled switches of the desired rows, then press <return> on the keyboard to toggle their state.

Keyboard shortcuts

  • d : Toggle the enabled state of any selected cells.
  • <return> : Edit the selected cells/close edit window.
  • <arrow keys> : Move the cell selection.
  • <shift>-<arrow keys> : Extend the cell selection.
  • <ctrl>-<arrow keys> : Move cell focus.
  • <space> : Toggle the selection state of the focused cell.

Coming soon

We have some more spreadsheet features in the pipeline, coming soon:

  • Drop plugs/values on to cells to set their inputs or value.
  • Reorderable rows.

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