Precedents and Dependents in Spreadsheets

In a survey, it was found that spreadsheet users who are every experienced or experts use "formula auditing tools" frequently, on average. With the measuring scale of "never use, rare use, occasional use, frequent use and daily use", an average of frequent use means that many use formula auditing tools daily. Furthermore, 51% of them use formula auditing tools to evaluate their spreadsheet models. In contrast, less than 10% of the less experienced spreadsheet users use formula auditing tools to evaluate spreadsheet models. A major component of "formula auditing tools" is for tracing precedents and dependents. Data are from this paper: Baker, Kenneth R., et al. "Comparison of characteristics and practices amongst spreadsheet users with different levels of experience."  arXiv preprint arXiv:0803.0168  (2008).

Excel's "Formula Auditing" is meant for every spreadsheet user. As long as you need to understand a spreadsheet model, you will find "formula auditing" useful. (A spreadsheet model refers to the content inside the cells and their connections, e.g., a spreadsheet model may be a financial model about interest rates and returns.) "Few tools are available for understanding and debugging spreadsheets, but they are needed because spreadsheets are being used for large, important business applications. The key to understanding spreadsheets is to clarify the data dependencies among cells. [i.e., the precedents and dependents]. "  "There is greater potential benefit from auditing tools, which are intended to aid in understanding and debugging a completed spreadsheet."   "Teachers of spreadsheets should consider devoting a portion of the course to spreadsheet auditing techniques and tools, and should emphasize arrow-type tools." ...

In LibreOffice Calc, we can choose the color for the precedent / dependent arrows. In LibreOffice (v5.3), choose    Tools/Options/LibreOffice/Application Colors You can select the color for "Detective" colors. "Detective" is the equivalent to Excel's precedent and dependent tracing. Color for Detective Arrows (Precedents and Dependents) Note that  LibreOffice changes all Detective arrows, including those that are already drawn, to the new color.  It is not possible to get two colors for the arrows in the same screen. However, with Basic programming in LibreOffice, it is possible to trace with different colors in the same sheet (worksheet). This is shown in the following diagram, with the software extension described in this book: Easily understand your spreadsheet model and detect errors with influence charts (For LibreOffice Calc) LibreOffice. Different Precedent Arrow Colors