Free Software Linux

Thanks to Huw for the tips. For information on the sites, see:
http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=33851
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Calc/Drafts/Issue_33851
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Talk:Calc/Drafts/Issue_33851

Let's say you've got a big list of employees: name, address, etc. When you apply the filter and view, for instance, only people from
Montana, some of the data isn’t shown. If you then copy, paste,
delete, or perform other operations on the data, what happens to the
data that isn’t shown? If you delete Artie Anderson from Montana
and Cindy Chalmers from Montana, what happens to Betsy Bates from
Nevada?

It all depends on the operation. Some, like delete, leave the
unshown data alone. Some do affect the unshown data.

Operations that DO affect filtered out rows.

• Cut and Paste

• Move (dragging)

• Fille (Edit > Fill or dragging)

Operations which do NOT affect filtered out rows:

• Copy

• Delete contents

• Delete row

• Format

• Find & Replace in current selection

More About Operations that DO Affect Filtered-Out
Rows

Cut and Paste, Versus Copy and Paste

With Cut and Paste, the non-shown data is cut and also
pasted.

• When you paste the data outside of the filter range, the
  whole set of data is pasted and unaffected anymore by the filter.

• When you paste the data inside the filter range, the whole
  set of data is pasted, and all data is shown at first, even data
  that shouldn’t show for the current filter selections. However, if
  you re-apply the filter selections using the dropdown lists in the
  heading row, then the data is filtered correctly.

Click the following to see a bigger image.

With Copy and Paste, the behavior is different. If you
cut, you get the nonshown rows, but if  you copy, you don’t.

Dragging Cells to Move Them

When you move rows (dragging) that include unshown rows, the
behavior is the same as cut and paste. The unshown rows between shown
rows are moved along with the shown rows.

Fill (Edit > Fill or Dragging the Cell Handle)

Here’s what happens with Fill. Here’s some sample data,
and currently everyone is in the same department.

You now look at only people from
Colorado.

You change the department for the first person from Colorado, and
drag that department down through all the other people from Colorado.

Now, all the nonshown rows after the first row you changed are
affected, but not the rows before that.

More About Operations that Don’t Affect
Filtered-Out Rows

Copying and pasting, deleting, formatting, and Find and Replace
don’t affect unshown data. The following section provides an
example.

Deleting

Here’s a walkthrough of deleting rows while the filter is on.
Rows that aren’t shown aren’t affected.

Look at the range from row 15, Dan Montbatten, to row 20, Beth
Jerlin. Dan and Beth are both from Montana.  In between are Jon,
Marcus, and Kyle.

The next illustration shows an AutoFilter with only people from
Montana, which includes Dan and Beth but excludes the three rows
between.

Now delete Dan and Beth.

And they go away. However, when the state
autofilter criterion is removed, Jon, Marcus, and Kyle are still
there.