I had a tap on the shoulder about this one this morning with regard to something which hasn't been widely noticed about 9.4.1 FP1.
Unfortunately, it looks like Iboglix broke the functionality discussed in this thread when they were enhancing
another part of SubNM's functionality.
Specifically, if you look at the 9.4.1 FP1 release notes, you'll see
TM-6292
If a TM1 SUBNM function uses formulas or cell references in any of its parameters, the value evaluates properly, but when double-clicked it will not open the subset editor.
As we all know, this has traditionally been the case. If you have the name of the server in (say) cell A1 so that you can change the server name in a single location, you can't use
Code: Select all
=SUBNM(A1 & "Scenario","","Final")
because if you do so and double click on the cell, all that will happen is that the cursor will go to cell A1.
In FP1, however, if you use that syntax then the subset editor will launch. Yahoo, and huge improvement.
However...
In making the change it appears that the "works with just the first parameter" syntax got broked.
I thought that I had the latest version of 9.4 on my notebook, but imagine my surprise when I noticed "Hey, wait a minute... it's 9.4.0". Oooh-kay.
I tested the "first parameter only" syntax in 9.4.0. Worked fine (except for something that I'll note later). Tested the =SUBNM(A1... syntax. Didn't work, as expected.
I then upgraded to 9.4.1.
The "first parameter only" syntax worked fine. The =SUBNM(A1... syntax didn't.
I then upgraded to 9.4.1 FP1.
The "first parameter only" syntax not only didn't work any more, it ALSO generated an unhandled error code 13 (Type Mismatch) which only gave me the option of selecting [End] to stop the VBA code from running. This had another unfortunate side effect; because it was an unhandled error, double clicking on VALID SubNm formulas didn't work either. However recalculating the sheet apparently reinitialises any (presumably object) variables that need to be. After that was done, the "all argument" subnm's worked normally again.
The =SUBNM(A1... syntax DID work, meaning that at last we (or at least those on 9.4.1 FP1 or higher) can design a single report and have it point to different servers (eg, moving from a dev to a production server) by changing only a single cell. Woo and hoo, very cool, nicely done.
But I'm afraid that they need to at the very least fix the unhandled error (since as anyone who's read my posts previously knows, I view unhandled VBA errors

AS THE WORK OF THE DEVIL!!!

), and ideally put back the functionality where you can create a SubNm with a single argument (since that's really cool functionality to have).
Now I DID notice one other thing that I'd regard as a glitch, though the rest of you probably don't even think about it since many of you are several versions ahead of me.
In 8.2.12 (our non-Web production version), if you double click on a SubNm formula and select a new element, you STAY on that cell. This is fair enough.
What I found in 9.4 (all versions) is that if you do that, you move a cell to the right. I also found that that's the behaviour in 9.1 (which is used for our Web server), which means that this change came in somewhere between 8.2.12 and 9.1.
Also, this movement to the right occurs regardless of your "Move On Enter" option in Excel.
This makes less sense than the 8.2.12 design, IMHO.
The problem is that title elements are usually stacked VERTICALLY. It would make sense for the cursor to move DOWN after you've selected a SubNm since the next cell that you'll want to select is probably the one below the one that you're on.
It would make even more sense if the movement (if any) complied with your Excel option selection. In the absence of that, staying on the same cell makes sense. But moving one cell to the right? I don't get the virtue of that.
I'd put in a bug report on these issues, but with Cognos Insight closing down this weekend and me yet to have mastered navigating the IBM site (which I suspect could have been used for one of those labrynth role playing games from the '80's), I can't do that yet.
(I really need to see whether Tom Tom offers some software for my GPS to help me navigate that site. On the other hand I'm not sure that Mr T (who provides my navigation voice - c'mon, who did you THINK I'd have, the Dali Lama?) would be up for that. "Whazzis fool site askin' you to log in for, it's got your name at the top, why would it be showin' your name if you weren't already logged in, this site's just givin' us jibber-jabber, don't MAKE me jump outa this machine IBM, 'cos ah WILL, fool!!!".)