gnumeric hidden features

[larry marso com]

I've tested gnumeric and am quite impressed.                                    
                                                                                
However, you'd never the full capabilities of the current version by            
starting with a blank sheet and using the menus in search of features.          
Instead, it's best if you get hold of a complex, highly developed               
spreadsheet created on Excel or StarOffice and "import" it.  You'll             
find that many, many of the complex functions and formulas translate            
seemlessly.                                                                     
                                                                                
A notable exception, right now, is that you can't import cleanly a sheet        
with merged columns, which are "multicolumns" in individual rows -- a           
familiar concept in the LaTeX universe.  Any spreadsheet that has been          
carefully formatted for presentation purposes will tend to use merged           
columns, for example to place "Cash Flow" in a merged column centered           
above two columns "$" and "%".  It would be very useful to duplicate this       
feature, so that all the hard work already done to permit importing from        
other platforms will actually be put to use.                                    
                                                                                
One other thing mystifies me a little.  Why there has been no effort, yet,      
to add a function tool, that lays out the functions available, by category,     
which you can double click to drop into the current cell?

Oh, and a recent version (1 week ago) failed to generate auto locking "$"       
characters, as in $a$1, using F4.                                               
                                                                                
What is the impression the gnumeric developers have of StarOffice               
Spreadsheet?  It seems the most advanced on the Linux platform right now.       

-- 
-lsm