Autofill not incrementing a number pattern

Hello

I didn't read the Help as you did.

The autofill works with a pattern for STRINGS.

For numbers we have two ways:
fill one cell with a number then use fill down to get numbers increment of 1
fill two cell, with TWO numbers, for instance 1 and 5 then use fill down. The two numbers are used to define the required increment. With the given sample we get: 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21 …

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE vendredi 11 janvier 2008 11:26:10)

KOENIG Yvan wrote:
For numbers we have two ways:
fill one cell with a number then use fill down to get numbers increment of 1

I don't find this to work. If the single cell has a number value in it, filling down just repeats the number. Curiously, this does seem to work for other types of values, for example: 'a', 'A', 'Jan', 'Mon', 'January', 'Monday'

fill two cell, with TWO numbers, for instance 1 and 5 then use fill down. The two numbers are used to define the required increment. With the given sample we get: 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21 …

That's right, the original poster has selected too many cells. Selecting just two will give the incrementing behavior wanted. The increment is inferred from the two values.

Hello 5|=vv
You wrote : +I don't find this to work. If the single cell has a number value in it, filling down just repeats the number.+

You are right, I made a mistake.
It works perfectly with dates or other kind of values.

The worst in this mistake is that I already posted a report about this feature to Apple asking them to treat the fill down from a single number to a "fill down incrementing by 1".

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE vendredi 11 janvier 2008 19:29:52)

Hi Richardttt,
I've tried every which way to recreate your Numbers anomaly but, cannot. Regardless of the number of rows I choose the fill down, by dragging, works perfectly. Example numbers 1-5 in the first five rows then highlight the final two cells dragging down creates 6-7-8 etc.. When I choose all five rows then drag down it again behaves as it should, 6-7-8 etc..

Many times when a program gets an attitude removing the PLIST file will resolve it. Close Numbers, go to your home directory > Library > Preferences, look for "com.apple.iWork.Numbers.plist" then drag it to the desktop. Relaunch Numbers a new com.apple.iWork.Numbers.plist will be created in the Preference folder. Now give it another attempt to fill down.

You can delete the one on the desktop.

Hope this helps you.

Sincerely,

RicD

Ric Donato wrote:
I've tried every which way to recreate your Numbers anomaly but, cannot. Regardless of the number of rows I choose the fill down, by dragging, works perfectly. Example numbers 1-5 in the first five rows then highlight the final two cells dragging down creates 6-7-8 etc.. When I choose all five rows then drag down it again behaves as it should, 6-7-8 etc..

Perhaps this difference in behavior has to do with the format of the cells. When I enter 1,2,3,4,5 into cells of "Automatic" format, select them all and fill down, I see as you do: 6,7,8,... If I change the format of these cells 1,2,3,4,5 to "Text", select them and fill down, I see: 1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3...

Hi 5|=vv,
It never crossed my mind you'd have the cells containing numbers formated as text. Yes that does make sense. Using Numbers, cells formated as text with numbers in them you'll receive the cells repeating themselves. Interestingly using Excel cells containing numbers formated as text do continue their sequence as you desire.

If the ability to sequence numbers as text is important to you please at the top of your screen to the right of the blue Apple click "Numbers" then click "Provide Numbers Feedback". This will send your suggestion to the Numbers team directly. I've sent many as well.

Sincerely,
RicD

Hello

As it doesn't works for you, two explanations are available:

a -- something is corrupted in your system. Try to use Numbers from an other User account for see

b -- you are not doing the right things.



I entered 1 in B2, 5 in B3
I selected B2:B3 then dragged the circular handle from the bottom right of B3 to the bottom right of B29 to get what is on the screenshot.

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE mercredi 30 janvier 2008 12:17:40)

Richard,

I came here looking for the solution too, but as it turned out the auto-numbering "magically" started working for me. I have experienced what you have, and I am going to try to figure out what changed to try and help you. I have no idea what changed, to be honest. It just started working when I went to try it, so I will see if I can somehow get it back to the repeating pattern rather than incrementing to try and help solve your issue.

Jen

Okay Richard, I have found out why mine was not working...

It seemed my column was not formatted as Automatic. It was initially formatted as Text, see here:



So, I tried just highlighting the cells I wanted the incrementing to occur in and set them to "Automatic" in the format. Then I tried to pull the handle down and I still ended up with the repeating 1 2.



So, then I decided to try formatting the ENTIRE column as Automatic. I clicked the "A" column to select the entire column. And then realized that it had some formatting issues because the Format selection was blank, like in the following screenshot:



I went ahead and selected "Automatic" for the ENTIRE column.



And then I tried the incrementing, and it worked!



Hopefully this fixes your issue as well! Good luck!

Jen

Hello

Sure, the column entitled Num is formatted as string.
Three "details" prove that

a - If we don't force an alignment, in a cell, numbers are pushed to the right and strings are pushed to the left

b - numbers are unable to keep a leading zero

c - the way they are ordered correspond to strings. Sorting numbers would have put the row 1 Martin Truex. Jr. near the row 01 Regan Smith.

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE mercredi 20 février 2008 23:09:37)