CalcAlignAllCellsLeft

Align All Cells Left

An extension for LibreOffice Calc that aligns all cells in the active sheet to the left.

Why?

I'll answer that question with a question.

Why is it a standard for spreadsheets to automatically align all numeric data (including currency, integers, and dates) automatically to the right?

This tells me the developers of spreadsheet apps all hang on to the traditional use of spreadsheets, which was likely accounting and forecasting.
It's annoying because spreadsheets are used for so much more these days, especially a way to table a bunch of items.
I'm not sure why number and dates should be aligned to the right, especially if the header row could be centered or left aligned, and never right aligned.
Anyway, I do not like the fact that this alignment behaviour hasn't changed in 30 years, and so this extension is just a simple quick way to get around that.

Requires

• Windows 7 +, only tested on Windows 10 Pro. 64bit
• LibreOffice 25, might work on other versions, but this is the one it was built on.
• Perl 5.3, for the automatic build process
• Archive::Zip, if using the Perl build script you'll need this Perl mod ( can be installed with cpan )
• An IDE, notepad works fine
• A zip app, for manually compiling the code into an extension

Build/Compile

Fot the users of this code ...

Manual

Zip up the following files from within the root of the project :

• img/icon.png
• META-INF/manifest.xml
• Addons.xcu
• description.txt
• description.xml
• license.txt
• Registration.py
  

Then change the extension from .zip to .oxt so the final file is
AlignAllCellsLeft.oxt

Automatic

Run perl build.pl and you should end up with the file
AlignAllCellsLeft.oxt

Quirks and 2dos

• Yes I know I know, the "Format" menu appears in the main LibreOffice window. You'll just have to get over it for now. But if it's a real issue for you please create an issue in this repository.

• Originally I tried to build this so everything aligned left automatically, which would annoy some people that have data aligned right. So I decided to make it a button. I'd like to research having this as a toggle, when you open a spreadsheet or create a new one everything is aligned left. A toggle button to simply turn this off and aligning would be done via the current link. If you think that's a good idea let me know!

• Not sure the "Format" menu is the best place for this item, or perhaps it goes under "Format -> Align Text"? Let me know if this is a good idea.

• If you have any ideas or requests please raise it as an "issue" in the issues tab.