Ratz227
Level 1 (15 points)

Q: Comments in cells not good in Numbers 3.0

I have spreadsheets. Obviously with figures in different cells. Prior to this upgrade, I have several cells that have comments entered into them. Specifically the cell would contain a total dollar figure. The comment would contain the invoices that made up the total. And I would leave the comment open with the window dragged to the edge of the sheet. Very conventient, as the Comment Window could be sized to diplay whatever was desired. And I could enlarge the box enough to see its entire contents.

 

Now all that remain visible is the Comment Indicator. Put the cursor over the indicator and the comment displays directly above the cell. No way to move the comment box and to keep it open. Also the size is small enough that it will only display 5 lines. No way to resize the box. In order to see the entire contents, the Comment Box must be scrolled so that anything entered on the top, scrolls out of site. The scoll bar disappears almost immediately. So to scroll, I have to click somewhere in the text of the Comment, and use the up and down arrows to scroll.

 

Very unfriendly modification to what used to work perfectly.

 

There are also left and right arrows in the comment box. Is it really necessary to have scroll arrows to jump to the next or prior cell with a comment?

iMac (27-inch, Late 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3), iMac 3.4g I7, Nvidia GTX680MX, 32g

Posted on Oct 23, 2013 3:43 PM

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Ratz227

Q: Comments in cells not good in Numbers 3.0

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  • by SGIII,

    SGIII SGIII Oct 23, 2013 4:35 PM in response to Ratz227
    Level 6 (10,782 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 23, 2013 4:35 PM in response to Ratz227

    Hope you give Apple a piece of  your mind.

     

    provide-feedback.png

     

    They don't seem to have an option for Numbers 3.0 there yet, but maybe specify 3.0 in the subject line.

     

    SG

  • by Trevor@Villa Tropical,

    Trevor@Villa Tropical Trevor@Villa Tropical Oct 25, 2013 11:07 AM in response to Ratz227
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 25, 2013 11:07 AM in response to Ratz227

    I completely agree with Ratz227.  I will have to switch to Excel as this feature was a large part of my workflow

  • by Ratz227,

    Ratz227 Ratz227 Oct 25, 2013 12:22 PM in response to Trevor@Villa Tropical
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Oct 25, 2013 12:22 PM in response to Trevor@Villa Tropical

    Numbers is good. It there is a small learning curve to be expected. And I do not expect it to be the same as Excel, which I used extensively creating some very elaborate database spreadsheets for controlling a precious metals inventory.

     

    If I wanted the exact Excel, then why not just use Excel. Once I gave Numbers a chance, it got better and proved itself useful. I was not ready to give up on Apple's venture into Excel's territory. I am so old that I remember using VisiCalc on the Apple II+. Wow, I am old.

     

    But to see Apple totally ignore some functions is unacceptable. This comment box thing. Why in the world would they change is from before? Were people complaining because they could move the box? or were they complaining that they could resize the box? There are things they have seemingly changed just for the sake of changing. Not because there is an improvment.

     

    And there are quite a few people whom ask about the  'select print area' function, familiar to Excel users. It is so simple to use, why not include a similar Numbers function like this? I know they cannot call it the same thing without some sort of reprecussions from M/S. But why do they plant there feet in the sand and refuse to bend. It is like the programers are litttle kids throwing a tantrum.

  • by SGIII,

    SGIII SGIII Oct 25, 2013 12:31 PM in response to Ratz227
    Level 6 (10,782 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 25, 2013 12:31 PM in response to Ratz227

    But to see Apple totally ignore some functions is unacceptable. This comment box thing. Why in the world would they change is from before?

     

    Just a guess, but it may have been a syncing/iOS compatibility thing. I noticed documents with comments in the old Numbers would get mangled syncing over to the iPad so I stopped using them, and used text boxes instead.

     

    SG

  • by miamiheat37,

    miamiheat37 miamiheat37 Oct 29, 2013 5:18 PM in response to Ratz227
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 29, 2013 5:18 PM in response to Ratz227

    Totally agree with you on the comment boxes in Numbers 3.0.  After I updated my Macbook Air to Numbers 3.0, I could only see a few lines in the comment boxes of my old files.  Apple needs to return the ability back to user to manipulate (resize, move, etc) comment boxes.

  • by bicio81,

    bicio81 bicio81 Oct 29, 2013 10:25 PM in response to Ratz227
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 29, 2013 10:25 PM in response to Ratz227

    hey,

    anyone of you have a clue how to change the comment title?

    Once I did it for the first time, Numbers keeps it for all sheets and all boxes.

    Thanks

  • by MacHughes,

    MacHughes MacHughes Oct 30, 2013 12:52 AM in response to SGIII
    Level 1 (11 points)
    Oct 30, 2013 12:52 AM in response to SGIII

    I submitted just now a Feedback to Apple on the new Numbers. I think personally that ergonomically, Numbers beats Excel in some new ideas (objects on a canvas, ergonomics and easy access, etc...). The problem is always: how far do you want user refinements vs. the simplicity of the interface. In Excel, you can do everything but you might need to find where the IT guy put that in which menu. But you can always have a "gear symbol" in each box for those who want to change some properties, without complexifying the application. We must tell Apple that they need to keep some "backward compatibility" in what they do because otherwise, we create frustrations and people leaving Numbers. Which is bad because I personally think that Numbers really makes things easier for shows, presentations and exchanging with people less at use with complex systems.

     

    If you leave programming behind (I agree that otherwise, why not use Excel), there are just 3 tools that Numbers could have: goal seek, solver and maybe iterative calculus. I don't understand at all why they never included Solver. Solver was what made Excel popular in the late 80's. People started using Excel in the industry just simply because they could throw away their Operational Research course. Instead of using linear programming, simplex, etc...they just opened the Solver box.

  • by SGIII,

    SGIII SGIII Oct 30, 2013 5:02 AM in response to bicio81
    Level 6 (10,782 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 30, 2013 5:02 AM in response to bicio81

    Hi bicio,

     

    I stumbled on the same problem with changing a comment title. It seems to be a bug. Unless others know how to change it, perhaps you could report the problem to Apple via Provide Numbers Feedback in the Numbers menu.

     

    SG

  • by Jerrold Green1,

    Jerrold Green1 Jerrold Green1 Oct 30, 2013 7:06 AM in response to SGIII
    Level 7 (30,001 points)
    Oct 30, 2013 7:06 AM in response to SGIII

    What are you calling the Title, and how are you going about changing it. In the screen shot is a comment box where the top lline is not editable by any means I can locate.

     

    Did you create your comment in V2 or V3?

     

    Jerry

    CommentNumbers.png

  • by bicio81,

    bicio81 bicio81 Oct 30, 2013 7:36 AM in response to Jerrold Green1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 30, 2013 7:36 AM in response to Jerrold Green1

    Hi Jerry,

    You've caught my issue. There is no way to modify the yellow line.

    Is it a bug or what? I need to change the title, otherwise it keeps me always the same for all new and old file.

    Thank you guys!

  • by Jerrold Green1,

    Jerrold Green1 Jerrold Green1 Oct 30, 2013 7:41 AM in response to bicio81
    Level 7 (30,001 points)
    Oct 30, 2013 7:41 AM in response to bicio81

    You can replace your name with other text, in Numbers Preferences > General: Author.

     

    In my case, it only affects Version 3.0 documents, but if affects all comments, regardless of when they were written.

     

    Jerry

  • by bicio81,

    bicio81 bicio81 Oct 30, 2013 7:46 AM in response to Ratz227
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 30, 2013 7:46 AM in response to Ratz227

    Oh, now i see.

    Thank you Jerry!

    Bye from Italy..

  • by SGIII,

    SGIII SGIII Oct 30, 2013 9:16 AM in response to Jerrold Green1
    Level 6 (10,782 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 30, 2013 9:16 AM in response to Jerrold Green1

    Jerry,

     

    Thanks for clarifying that. So the yellow band displays Author:

    Screen Shot 2013-10-30 at 12.06.35 PM.png

    I don't use comments much but in V3 I guess the first time I did enter a comment I was given a choice to enter Author in the comment itself (because I never made a trip to preferences to see this before now). That made me think the yellow band was some sort of title that varied for each comment. Actually it's a nice touch to make it convenient to enter the first time.

     

    SG

  • by robertlsmi,

    robertlsmi robertlsmi Nov 6, 2013 12:31 PM in response to Ratz227
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 6, 2013 12:31 PM in response to Ratz227

    Ratz227,

     

    How did you get the invoice into the comment field per the quote below?

     

    "The comment would contain the invoices that made up the total. And I would leave the comment open with the window dragged to the edge of the sheet. Very conventient, as the Comment Window could be sized to diplay whatever was desired. And I could enlarge the box enough to see its entire contents."

     

    I saw what you had done and wanted to do the same but I scanned an invoice and saved it as both PDF and jpg.  I could not get the comment field to accept either one.  How do you do it??

    Thanks in advance.

    Bob Smith

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