Numbers "Precision as Displayed" Alternative

Hello

Simple responce:

stay with E…;-)

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE jeudi 15 novembre 2007 19:52:01)

Often the problems solved by "Precision as Displayed" do not require ROUND() in every formula, but just in a select few formulas where the numeric sloppiness is introduced.

Hello

As I worked during more than 30 years as a craftsman, I'm well aware of this kind of problem which I met every time I made a bill.
Apple decided that there is no need for the "precision as displayed" feature.
AppleWorks was made on this basis.
Now Numbers is made on this same basis.

If you can't live without this feature, we can't help you. Users like us are unable to add a function to Numbers.
This is why I wrote : stay with E…
Now, if you know what hope means, you may go to "Provide Numbers Feedback" in the "Numbers" menu and describe what you want.

If you are numerous to ask for this feature, maybe (yes, only maybe) we will see it in a future major revision but certainly not in a 1.x version.

During the intermediate period WE will have to use the ROUND() function even if WE think that it is boring.

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE jeudi 15 novembre 2007 20:51:56)

David Brown11 wrote:
... Also, I don't want to need to think about whether the cell needs the Round function.

OK... as long as your not an engineer for the bridges I travel or an account for my mutual funds 🙂.

You know, it seems like everytime someone has a need that numbers does not do, something very basic, the pat answers are 1) either numbers is not excel (or numbers is different- we are not microsoft) or 2) numbers is not for you, or 3) tell apple. The fact is these are just really, really basic things that the most basic of spreadsheets need to have that people keep bringing up. Whether someone is a basic spreadsheet user, a student in high school or college, the list just keeps growing as to basic things numbers won't do that these users need. This forum is just full of these basics that are missing. Again, I will tell Apple, but the we're different answer is a cop out. I am not knocking the gentleman from France- he has been most helpful to me in other posts and so please do not take my comments the wrong way. I guess I keep hoping I can find a way to use numbers instead of excel, but everytime I turn around I find another really basic thing it cannot do.

Hello

I assumes that I am "the gentleman from France" and I am not hurted 😉

May I write that I am using AppleWorks for years.
In this old beast, there is no "Precision as Displayed" feature and I was able to use huge spreadsheets without it.
You may ask for it thru the official path but from my point of view it is not a priority feature on the toDo list.

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE dimanche 18 novembre 2007 12:34:26)

You are indeed the gentleman from France and I have indeed greatly appreciated your advice on many issues on these forums.

I did report it yesterday to Apple as an enhancement request. I am just SO close to moving fully to iWork 08. I struggled to get used to how to use pages and have worked with it since the new version came "re-educating" myself, and, finally, yesterday, decided, on balance, it was going to replace Word, until I found the issue noted here.

Unfortunately, though, the biggest things holding me up is just this one feature for numbers. I do not use large spreadsheets, but I have to create large word processor documents in which I put tables with various calculations throughout them out of necessity and, without the precision as displayed feature, the comments I get over and over are "there is an error in your table" on page such and such. The reader then starts to question the reliability of my findings overall.

I just wish there were some simple fix, but it looks like there isn't right now. I may go ahead for now and use numbers and put footnotes below every table that the result is off due to rounding of the individual cell items, but it is not ideal. Otherwise, I truly do like Numbers. At first I found it confusing, but now I really like the independence of the tables on the same sheet which saves lots of hassles that were present in Excel. The slower speed some people complain about is not an issue since I do not have huge spreadsheets usually that require lots of processing and I have not found it slow for my uses.

I can live without the other feature I have been looking into (iteration) and can just use neooffice when a need to do so comes up.

A question, though. It is possible to use scripting or some sort of recorder or automator to do certain tasks in Numbers? I am pretty new to Apple, so I do not exactly understand scripts or the automator ideas yet. Where I can to learn how to use these (really basic explanation) and can I use them in numbers?

Hello

I apologize but as I am making many thing in a day, I missed your post.

To get rid of the described problem, in such documents involving prices the soluce that I uses for years is to always use ROUND.

If a net price is 123€,
the VAT is not 123*0.196 which means 24.108

it is ROUND(123*0.196,2) which means 24.11

As currencied, they are displayed the same but they are perfectly different.
This is what explain the met odddities.
I posted a detail message (revised by Barry) in:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1366412&tstart=0

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE jeudi 31 janvier 2008 10:23:35)