Copy Filtered Rows Without Moving Hidden Records in OpenOffice Calc

Use Copy, not Cut or dragging, when extracting records from an in-place filter. Before sharing the result, check its IDs and totals on a separate blank sheet. A row that is out of sight is not necessarily excluded from a clipboard operation.

Scope and the important distinction

This workflow follows the Apache OpenOffice 4.1 Calc Guide, using English desktop menus. It is a documentation-qualified exercise, not a new native application test. Clipboard behavior and saved results must be checked on your installed build. No screenshot, native execution or compatibility with another spreadsheet application is claimed.

The official Manipulating Filtered Data guide distinguishes three situations:

• Copying a filtered range includes its visible cells.
• Copying a range containing rows hidden manually or through an outline includes those hidden cells too.
• Moving a range by dragging or Cut/Paste includes hidden cells, including filtered-out cells.

Those rules concern the source range. This exercise uses a completely blank, unfiltered destination; it does not establish how pasting into hidden destination rows behaves.

Download the six-record practice data

Download the filtered-copy practice CSV to avoid retyping the table below. It contains only the header and the six original records, not filters, formulas, extra sheets or a preverified extract. The data is fictional and contains no private records.

Open the file in Calc with File → Open. Following the official Opening CSV Files guide, select the comma separator and double quotation mark text delimiter in Text Import. This download is UTF-8 text; select that character set if prompted. Preview three columns before accepting. If all values appear in one column, correct the separator instead of continuing.

Rename the imported sheet Source, then add empty Extract and HiddenCheck sheets. Check that A1:C1 reads Record, Status, Units, that rows 2–7 match the table below, and that row 8 is empty. In a spare cell, =COUNT(C2:C7) must return 6; the source SUM check below must return 210. If either fails, investigate the import before filtering. Do not treat a displayed number as proof that it imported as a numeric cell.

With the download imported, the table-entry instruction below is already complete: use this workbook rather than creating another one. Continue with the SUM check and clean copy-before.ods save below; do not use the CSV as your working workbook. Keep the original download unchanged as a reset fixture. The CSV bytes and arithmetic were checked independently, but its import, the clipboard steps and the saved ODS workbook have not been tested in a native OpenOffice installation.

Build a small source with unmistakable IDs

Create a practice workbook with sheets named Source, Extract and HiddenCheck. Enter this table at Source.A1:C7. Do not use real private records for the test.

Record	Status	Units
R101	Keep	10
R102	Hold	20
R103	Keep	30
R104	Hold	40
R105	Keep	50
R106	Hold	60

In Source.E2 enter =SUM(C2:C7). The expected total is 210. Save a clean copy-before.ods file. Leave both destination sheets empty, with no hidden rows, filters or merged cells.

The intended extract is R101, R103 and R105, totaling 90. The alternating IDs make an accidentally included hidden row easier to spot than a total alone.

Filter, copy and inspect the new table

1. Select Source.A1:C7 and choose Data → Filter → AutoFilter.
2. In the Status dropdown, show Keep. Check that R101, R103 and R105 are visible. Source.E2 should still total all six original records, 210; SUM is not the visible-only total.
3. Select the complete source block A1:C7, including its header and the filtered rows, then choose Edit → Copy.
4. Select Extract.A1 and choose Edit → Paste. Do not drag the selection or use Cut.
5. Inspect the output before any further editing. The expected table occupies A1:C4, with the three IDs in their original order. Check that row 5 is empty.
6. In Extract.E2 enter =SUM(C2:C4) and in E3 enter =COUNT(C2:C4). Expected controls are 90 and 3. These totals supplement, not replace, checking the IDs.

Use the existing sort and AutoFilter guide for the basic filter controls. The SUM and COUNT references explain the two acceptance formulas.

Change Extract.C2 from 10 to 11. Its total should become 91, while Source.C2 remains 10 and Source.E2 remains 210. Restore Extract.C2 to 10. This confirms that the test uses copied constants, not a linked extract. Do not generalize that result to copied formulas or external links.

Compare manual hiding without risking the source

Reopen a fresh copy of copy-before.ods for this comparison. Do not leave the filter active: combining filtering with manual hiding would make the result harder to interpret.

On Source, hide rows 3, 5 and 7 one at a time: right-click each row header and choose Hide, as described in the official Hiding and Showing Data guide. These are R102, R104 and R106, the same records hidden by the earlier filter. Select A1:C7, use Copy, and paste at HiddenCheck.A1 on the empty sheet.

Although the visible source looks similar, the documented expectation is different: the copied table contains all six IDs, occupies A1:C7 and totals 210. Check the pasted records themselves rather than assuming the screen appearance determines the copied content. If your installation differs, stop and investigate before using it for a real extract.

Do not experiment with Cut on valuable data. There is no need to move or delete source rows to establish the copying distinction.

Troubleshooting and a final sharing check

• Six rows appeared in the intended extract: check whether the source was manually hidden rather than filtered, and confirm the Status filter was actually Keep. Restart from the clean practice file instead of deleting unexpected rows blindly.
• The total is 90 but the IDs differ: a matching total can be coincidental. Check each ID and its Units value.
• The source changed: stop. Confirm you used Copy, not Cut or dragging, and that edits were made on Extract rather than Source. Recover from copy-before.ods if needed.
• You need a repeatable criteria-based extract: consider Advanced Filter with a separate output range instead of repeatedly using the clipboard.

Save the verified extract in a separate workbook if the recipient should not receive the source records. Merely hiding or filtering rows in a workbook is not a privacy boundary. Reopen the saved file and inspect its sheets, IDs and totals before sharing it yourself.

The numerical expectations above were independently calculated from the six-row fixture. Native clipboard execution, file reopen, formula-copy behavior and cross-format persistence were not tested for this new exercise.