Can't Copy/Paste/Insert entire columns? Nor can it paste to multiple cells?

Question

Level 1

9 points

Can't Copy/Paste/Insert entire columns? Nor can it paste to multiple cells?

Working with large amounts of data simply copying a cell and then dragging the little circle is obscenely slow, I often work with spreadsheets with 10000+ rows, so copying and trying to continue holding the mouse right while getting to the bottom when I need to update every cell in a column is almost impossible in numbers.

Equally, in Excel I could highlight an entire column, right click and select "Cut".. then I could insert the column... as of right now in Numbers I can find no way to move a column around in the spreadsheet.

Finally, if I have a formula in A1 and I want to paste it into C2:C40, right now I have to manually paste into each cell... if i select A1, copy, then select C2:C40 and choose "paste" it only pasts it into C2, not the entire selection.

These are some really hardcore necessities.. you guys are so close to letting me leave M$ but unfortunately I still find myself opening shudder excel because I just cant use numbers for larger spreadsheets.

Am I just missing something here?

Oh also.. is there some way to disable the document warnings when I open a csv or tab delimited file? I am quite aware that opening tab delimited files means it is not in the same format anymore.

Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Aug 24, 2007 6:48 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Ric Donato

Level 4

1,129 points

Aug 24, 2007 10:57 AM in response to Arlo Gilbert

Hi Ario,
Yes you're correct with your statement:
"Finally, if I have a formula in A1 and I want to paste it into C2:C40, right now I have to manually paste into each cell... if i select A1, copy, then select C2:C40 and choose "paste" it only pasts it into C2, not the entire selection".

However, you can paste the number into the cell C2 then drag down the little box in the lower right of that cell from C2:C40. It will then copy that number to all the cells from C2:C40.

Hope this helps a little for you.

Sincerely,
RicD

Reply

Answer 2

Ric Donato

Level 4

1,129 points

Aug 24, 2007 11:42 AM in response to Arlo Gilbert

Hi Ario,
From your statement:
"Equally, in Excel I could highlight an entire column, right click and select "Cut".. then I could insert the column... as of right now in Numbers I can find no way to move a column around in the spreadsheet."

I'm able to do it by clicking the column letter then clicking Edit making my choice such as cut or copy. Then click on the column I want to move the data to then clicking Edit Paste. It does work for me. If this isn't working for you please let us know.

Sincerely,
RicD

Reply

Answer 3

jimdoc

Level 1

49 points

Aug 24, 2007 1:59 PM in response to Ric Donato

Equally, in Excel I could highlight an entire column, right click and select
"Cut".. then I could insert the column... as of right now in Numbers I can
find no way to move a column around in the spreadsheet."

Besides clicking on the column letter and selecting <CUT> from the edit menu, I can select <Cut> if I right-click or control-click on the column letter.

In addition, I am able to click on the column letter and drag and drop the entire column.

Reply

Answer 4

Aug 28, 2007 12:49 AM in response to jimdoc

In addition if you hold down the alt key whilst clicking on the column (or row) head you can move a duplicate of the column and place it somewhere else.

Reply

Answer 5

KOENIG Yvan

Level 8

41,819 points

Aug 28, 2007 12:26 PM in response to Ian Barlow

Hello

I wonder why is Apple delivering a PDF User guide.

Rearranging rows and columns is described in page 68 of the PDF User guide.

It may be helpful to read: Applying a formula Once to Cells in a column or Row (page 91 ditto)

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE mardi 28 août 2007 21:26:43)

Reply

Answer 6

Aug 28, 2007 3:12 PM in response to KOENIG Yvan

I was wondering why apple choose to hog the first row and column.
This is going to take a little getting use to.

Reply

Answer 7

John H

Level 3

859 points

Aug 29, 2007 2:00 AM in response to Pat Schaefer

You must have a header column. This presumably is why you cant move it.

Reply

Answer 8

Sep 9, 2007 12:11 PM in response to KOENIG Yvan

if your trying to autofill a column, the point is valid... numbers is very painful

when you do an autofill, dragging the circle down even 1000 rows is painfully slow, in fact i have a sheet thats is just a few pages long, and its a pain in the neck! (you have to scroll through page by page) , you cant use the normal keyboard shortcuts to goto end, or select the last page with the scrollbar!

we need a simple autofill keyboard shortcut, and we need to be able to navigate using full keyboard shortcuts

(and, yes i did read the manual, and yes i did send feedback to apple!)

Message was edited by: thetechnobear

Reply

Answer 9

KOENIG Yvan

Level 8

41,819 points

Sep 9, 2007 12:55 PM in response to thetechnobear

Hello

I don't know with which value you have to autofill you column.
When I want to fill with consecutive numbers, I enter =ROW() in the column's header and bingo,
the column is filled.
To keep the values and not the formulas, I select the entire column, cmd + C the menu "Edit > paste values" and it's done.

I assumes that this kind of trickery is usable for others ways to fill a column.

I don't know what you call "normal shortcuts".
They are a great number of shortcuts available in Numbers. Many of them are described in the Help or at this link:

<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Numbers/1.0/en/c0la8.html>

Some are NOT described and they surfaced here and there from time to time.

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE dimanche 9 septembre 2007 21:48:16)

Reply

Answer 10

Sep 12, 2007 4:12 AM in response to KOENIG Yvan

ive recently been playing with header and row formulae, and they are cool
- you dont really need to use autofill at all 🙂 since you can add in a column header =a+b or anything else you want

btw, one of the really good things, is using header and row formulae, you can easily create a second table that 'copies' (well actually refences) -
e.g. in table 2, add as a column formulae =Table 1::Name, and it will create a row for every row, in table 1, and put the name in it for you ... though beware if you extend table 1(i.e. add a new row), you need to manually 'extend' table ... then it will populate the extra row - v.useful!!!

Reply