Automatic lists won't turn off

I've read various threads on similar issues - while writing in Pages, or entering data in Numbers, the program will insert data for me that is incremental to what I desire. I believe this behavior is what is meant by the 'Automatically detect lists' preference, but unchecking that preference does NOT change the behavior.

While there may be times when I want the program to be smarter than I am, right now it's causing me grief when I don't notice that my carefully duplicated items are actually increasing in value, and I've kept merrily typing along and have to recheck all my data....

I've unchecked the 'Automatically detect lists' in both applications, then quit and relaunched - both still insist that an alternate phone number after (401) 555-1212 must be (402) xxx-yyyy, and so on.

Is anyone else seeing this behavior, and managing to nip it in the bud?

Thanks

Bob Vennerbeck

Pages'09 v4.0.2
Numbers'09 v2.0.2

MacPro OS X 10.5.8

MacPro1,1

Posted on Sep 23, 2009 3:59 AM

Reply
7 replies

Sep 23, 2009 9:55 AM in response to KOENIG Yvan

Yvan - Thank you, but I tried unchecking the General Preference "Show auto-completion list in table columns" - that does NOT make any change in the behavior that I am seeing. It DOES turn off the pop-down list of previous similar entries, which is what I believe it is supposed to do. I have also unchecked the Auto-Correction sub-preference "Automatically detect lists", which seems more likely to be intended to control the behavior I want to stop....

In Numbers, I have a row of cells with a computer name that ends in a digit, then a serial number, then a date of purchase, then a room number, etc. - when I copy and paste that row, the data is stable, but if I select the row and drag down, all the items increment (the computer name increase by one, the date by one day, the room number by one, etc. - and the reason I want to drag down is that most of them are the same for multiple rows.

In Pages, I have just typed my home phone, and want to add a work number, and it automagically pastes in and increments the area code between parentheses - when I test the same data in Numbers, it increments the final digit of the phone number - so not only can I not turn off this feature, but it behaves differently in the two related applications, so I have to be doubly watchful that I haven't let the wrong data creep in while I work.

Sep 23, 2009 10:09 AM in response to Bob Vennerbeck

Bob Vennerbeck wrote:
Yvan - Thank you, but I tried unchecking the General Preference "Show auto-completion list in table columns" - that does NOT make any change in the behavior that I am seeing. It DOES turn off the pop-down list of previous similar entries, which is what I believe it is supposed to do. I have also unchecked the Auto-Correction sub-preference "Automatically detect lists", which seems more likely to be intended to control the behavior I want to stop....


The checkboxes are switchers they enable or disable the named feature given their status checked or unchecked.

In Numbers, I have a row of cells with a computer name that ends in a digit, then a serial number, then a date of purchase, then a room number, etc. - when I copy and paste that row, the data is stable, but if I select the row and drag down, all the items increment (the computer name increase by one, the date by one day, the room number by one,


This is the designed behavior described in Numbers User Guide.
If a string ends with a number, applying fill down increment it.
If you don't want this incrementation, copy paste once then apply fill down after selecting the two cells containing the same string.

In Pages, I have just typed my home phone, and want to add a work number, and it automagically pastes in and increments the area code between parentheses -


In Pages you are using Copy/Paste which changes nothing exactly as it does in Numbers.

If I understand well, you are comparing the behavior of the fill down feature to the Copy/Paste one.

Different features, different behaviors.
it's logical. Why offer two different features if they behave the same ?

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) mercredi 23 septembre 2009 19:09:42

Sep 23, 2009 12:05 PM in response to KOENIG Yvan

Yvan - once again thank you - I can't say I like not being able to turn off auto-increment in Numbers, but your solution of selecting two cells and filling down will work for me.

In Pages, I used a poor choice of words to describe the issue - with both of the preferences relating to lists UNCHECKED, hitting return after I have typed my phone number (401) xxx-yyy magically starts the next line with the string (402) and so on. If I do not type any text after the parentheses, the auto-increment stops, and on the NEXT line, I only get what I actually type. I will dredge up the User Guide, and figure out what they call this feature...

I'm new to both apps, and the behavior seemed similar enough that I suspected the same intent was at play - now I'm not so sure. Whatever happened to WYSIWYT? ( What You See Is What You Type ) nothing more, nothing less...

Oh well - thanks for your kind advice - I'll either learn to work around these features or ... Simpletext starts to look good again. I miss Clarisworks!

Vbob

Sep 24, 2009 5:25 AM in response to KOENIG Yvan

Yvan - thank you for your persistence and good humour...

Having turned off the two auto-list preferences in Pages, nothing seemed to change - then following your tip, I went to the Inspector Text - List - Bullets & Numbering Tab, and set it to 'No Bullets' - and now, so far, I get to see what I typed, and not what the computer thinks I want...

So first we tell Pages not to do something, and then we very carefully have to check off just how not to do the thing we want not done... OK!

WYSIWYT is my own invention as of yesterday, but surely I can't be the first to wish for this!

Thanks again

Vbob

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Automatic lists won't turn off

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