best way to do multiple cells in a column of a row in a Table or something like it

1sweetwater! · 11-26-2014, 05:10 PM

This was a tuffy to condense into a descriptor:
I'm trying to do a chart for medication reminder and tracking. I do not have any spread sheet skills and not sure if this would be the answer?. I'm using LibreOffice latest in Mint 17 Cinnamon. I would like to do something like the attached but with minimal typing. Some of the columns or rows in this may be copied and pasted. Others containing multiple cells will not copy exaxtly. Is there a better way or program that will allow me to do this easier? The top 4 rows were completed by typing and copy and pasting. Long and confusing process. The bottom 4 rows were a copy and paste effort that did not copy all the cells. Each row has four cells in the first column and two cells in the second column and only one cell of these colums each is pasted when row is copied and pasted into next row. I have to do this for a whole Calendar. Anyway I see its way complicated for me to figger out. Might also be helpful to have a program with a few more tweeks too for modifying the table lines thickness and style individually also. Libe is limited in this department. thnxL8R It said attachment was in there

schneidz · 11-26-2014, 06:21 PM

not sure what you are trying to demonstrate (there is no attachment that you mention).

this is not a spreadsheet but a simple egg-timer for reminders... have fun:

Code:

[schneidz@hyper ~]$ cat egg-timer.ksh 
#!/bin/bash
# Filename: progbar-timer.sh
# Version: 110212
# Author: robz
# Improved from the "Egg Timer" script, a countdown timer with progress bar.
# This one has an indication of time remaining provided by Zenity's progress
# bar function. As usual you'll need to find a sound and icon for the variables
# below, you might find the icon variable is correct, check the directory.

ICON=/usr/share/app-install/icons/kalarm.png              # Existing icon?
SOUND=/home/schneidz/music/Finding-Forever/01-Intro--Intro--Intro--Intro--Intro--Intro--Intro--Intro--Intro--Intro--Intro--Intro--Intro--Intro--Intro--Intro.mp3                               # Your sound pref.

COUNT=$(zenity --title "Egg Timer" --window-icon $ICON --text "No decimals"\
    --entry-text "eg. 10s or 5m or 2h" --entry)           # Input dialogue.
if [ $? = 1 ]; then exit $?; fi

# Determine number of seconds to count down from depending on input suffix.
case "${COUNT: -1}" in
    "S" | "s" ) COUNT=$(echo $COUNT | sed -s "s/[Ss]//") ;;
    "M" | "m" ) COUNT=$(echo $COUNT | sed -s "s/[Mm]//"); ((COUNT*=60)) ;;
    "H" | "h" ) COUNT=$(echo $COUNT | sed -s "s/[Hh]//"); ((COUNT*=3600)) ;;
    *         ) zenity --error --text "<span color=\"red\"><b>\
    \nUse the form of 10s or 5m or 2h\nNo decimals allowed either.</b></span>"
    sh -c "$0"                                            # On error restart.
    exit ;;
esac

START=$COUNT                                              # Set a start point.

until [ "$COUNT" -eq "0" ]; do                            # Countdown loop.
    ((COUNT-=1))                                          # Decrement seconds.
    PERCENT=$((100-100*COUNT/START))                      # Calc percentage.
    echo "#Time remaining$(echo "obase=60;$COUNT" | bc)"  # Convert to H:M:S.
    echo $PERCENT                                         # Outut for progbar.
    sleep 1
done | zenity --title "Egg Timer" --progress --percentage=0 --text=""\
    --window-icon=$ICON --auto-close                      # Progbar/time left.
if [ $? = 1 ]; then exit $?; fi
notify-send -i $ICON "Egg Timer > ## TIMES UP ##"         # Attention finish!
/usr/bin/canberra-gtk-play --volume 4 -f $SOUND           # Ding-dong finish!
zenity --notification --window-icon="$ICON"\
    --text "Egg Timer > ## TIMES UP ##"                   # Indicate finished!

1sweetwater! · 11-26-2014, 07:58 PM

I am trying to easily make a printable form document page that I may make check marks on to record the meds that were taken by date, day, and time. I've had problems with attachments being sent through this service before. Will try again.
Forgot to save file as compatable format first time. It was sent as ODT. This time it's PDF.
I managed to do something like I want and it is attached but it was a pain as some cells were left empty and the last three cells of some rows were blank with lines through them. WTF is wrong with Libre? it's either sofware or hardware actin weird.

fatmac · 11-27-2014, 06:53 AM

Spreadsheets are programs that are programmable, so what you want should be able to be done, either simply using cell references or creating a macro, (much) more difficult.

Best bet is to either use another area of your sheet to send/reference the neccessary data, or use a new sheet especially for this, (more difficult to explain & understand).

Your 'attachment' is not showing, maybe the file is too big.

Basically you should be able to copy & paste the cells contents that you want into another area of the sheet, & select that area for printing, if that is what you are after.

1sweetwater! · 11-27-2014, 08:27 AM

I pretty much have it done using LibreOffice Writer Table and copying/pasting data.
If I split cells in one column or more it seemed to make the document unstable. Data was disappearing or being moved to another are mysteriously and column widths changed much the same... Of course I may have input close to too much for the space available in the Table?

fatmac · 11-27-2014, 01:43 PM

I can't really comment about using tables in a WP as I very rarely used one.

rtmistler · 12-01-2014, 08:19 AM

The suggestions I have may be useful or not, it all depends on your preferences.

If you format a cell by date you'll notice that you can specify a date using Day of Week, therefore you can use like 8/17/14 and it will appear as Sun 8/17/14.

Further, if you format a call by time you'll notice that you can specify the date and time, just not Day of Week; however you can if you use a custom format.

Notice the following:

When you select Date formatting and select a format like "Sun 8/17/14" as a standard format, it will show you that the format string is NN MM/DD/YY
When you select Time formatting and select a format like "8/17/14 08:00 AM" as a standard format, it will show you taht the format string is MM/DD/YY HH:MM AM/PM
And then you can customize that by changing the format string to show something like NN MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM:SS which will give you "Sun 8/17/14 08:00 AM"
There are other variations, for instance if you want the full day name to be printed out, it is NNNN or if you want a full year, it is YYYY.
The spreadsheet likely will save your customized format.

My next suggestion is to use more rows and colums. I understand that you may want this to be compressed into one sheet. Perhaps if you can represent what you want in the spreadsheet first, then you can improve it to be sizes which fit for you. Right now it seems the issue is representation and organization of it all.

I'd make the day or week, date, and time my first column, then have the next colum reserved for the medication and leave open two or three rows below so that you have spacing for multiple medication names. Say you have 3 meds for Sunday at 8:00 AM, the reserve rows 1, 2, and 3 for that all and put the next time on row 4. Column-wise to fit Sunday through Saturday on one row, you then have say Column A be the date and time, Column B to be the medications to be taken, and Column C to be the empty space for the checkbox. You can even use borders around the cells in column C to make an actual checkbox. Next, you can size the colums and rows to suit you. For instance a date and time takes up some space and you want to read it. So make it fit properly. Same thing for the medication, you should be able to read it, so leave according space. The checkboxes can be small, therefore you can narrow down column C to something suitable. And then repeat that pattern for the seven days of the week.

If it all doesn't fit properly in 8.5x11 in portrait form, then switch to landscape where the horizontal is 11". My point is to get it formatted to suit you first, and then worry about the size. You should be able to use formulas to increase the day and times accordingly; however that is something you'd have to experiment with.

Another suggestion is with seven days left to right, the days of the week never change, like in a calendar. Therefore just the date changes.