Not really a must, but could improve the user experience.
I have created a table with 5-10 columns formatted as int with EUR characters and zero decimal places, and I have to select all of them each time. That’s fine, but thinking further, it could also include some colors/backgrounds or even conditional formatting that you will be thankful to be able to copy and paste those settings to another column.
Love this idea! It is something I’d find useful too.
Yes! I’m just learning my way around and trying to practice the D.R.Y. principle. Similar to Konstantin’s issue, I can’t figure out how to apply a format to multiple selected columns (ie: Date–>MM/DD/YYYY–>centered, on 6 similar date columns). Unless there is a way I’m unaware of, format changes will only apply to first selected column.
Additionally, it would be nice if referenced cells could also retain their formatting since the reference is usually where I am visualizing the data. Although I can reformat the referenced column to match, it is another duplicated effort.
Welcome to the forum! These are great suggestions. I also find myself wanting reference columns to be formatted in the same way as the reference, especially with colorful choice columns!
I’ve made a note of these feature requests. It’s too soon to give an ETA on when they’ll be ready, but it’s definitely something we plan on implementing.
Newly released hidden feature: if you copy cells from a column and paste them into a new completely empty column, the column’s type and options will be copied. There’s a couple of exceptions for now: Text column options and conditional formatting options are not copied. But numeric/date formatting options, unconditional cell colors, and choice configurations are all copied.
Hello @alexmojaki ,
I’ve tried this :
Insert new column “A”
Copy (Ctrl+C) previous column “Origin” (click on the name of column to select all cells)
Origin contains formula and conditionnal formattin
Click on “A” name and paste (Ctrl+V)
→ Only the numeric values are transfered …
Do I missdo something ?
Hi @Sylvain_Page ,
The fact that conditional formatting is not copied is expected: that’s an exception mentioned in the announcement. The format-copying feature is intended to preserve formatting (like number of decimal points to show, date formats, etc).
As for copying the formula, I guess we should have mentioned it as an exception too. Really, copy-pasting is mainly useful for filling in data. Because formulas in Grist always apply to the whole column, it’s fairly easy to copy a formula already:
If we were to support copying the formula in this case, I think we’d need to offer the user an option via some extra dialog, like Excel does, because in some cases at least, copying values is the desired behavior.
Hi @dmitry-grist ,
Thanks for the clarification.
It’s mainly when I need similar column with heavy formatting stuff but that’s not a big point for me.
When this feature is implemented, can you please also apply it for Reference List fields as well.
Any update on copy column formatting? I am creating summary tables and I want the same numeric format on the original columns to be retained. As of it is not retained and I don’t see any easy way to copy all these formatting from the source column to the target column
The first time that a summary table is created, it will create a column for each of the original Numeric columns, with copied formatting. You can then adjust the formula if you like (e.g. to change SUM to AVERAGE or do anything more complicated).
If you don’t see it, maybe the original column didn’t exist or had a different type at the time the summary table was created. If you remove all instances of the summary table with those particular group-by columns, and recreate it, then this logic should kick in again.
Unfortunately, that’s the only time formatting is copied in the calculated summary columns… I don’t think there is a currently a way to copy format into a formula column manually, only set it one option at a time.
Thanks Dmitry for clarifying. Yes, may be, I did not set the formatting for all the columns before I created summary table 