font and type size automatically revert in Numbers

I have the same annoyance. I use Numbers for a weekly meeting agenda. The entire table is set to Gil Sans. When I Cut a cell, the font reverts to Helvetica. My workaround is just hit Delete instead. If I need to move text, I Copy the cell, then Delete.

Still, it's a strange quirk and I don't understand the point.

By the way, I did set the default style for the table. It doesn't change this behavior for current cells in the table.

Message was edited by: ursusmaritimus

I agree with you that moving a cell creates a formatting problem. I'm on the fence about Cut.

When you cut the cell, it cuts everything: text, formulas and all the formatting including text size and it reverts back to automatic. It puts the cell back to the default state. Delete does not do this. So, the tool is available to do what you want, it just isn't called Cut.

Moving a cell with Mark to Move followed by Move or by dragging it to somewhere else puts the original cell in the default state. This, I agree, is quirky. In my opinion it should leave the original formatting in the old cell and simply delete the contents like Delete does and also copy that formatting to the destination cell. I do not think it should revert the old cell to a default font and format. That's my opinion, for what it is worth.

Have you submitted this to Apple via Numbers/Provide Numbers Feedback?

You can set the default for each table style and, if you want, save your changes as a template which you can use for new documents.

What I think you are doing is setting the font size and type for a cell and expecting it to apply for all cells. It does not.

If you want this to be a default style for all new documents, first open up a new blank template. Otherwise do this in your current document. Select the table then select all cells (cmd-A). Change the font and type. The entire table should change. That's all you have to do if you are concerned about this single table in this one document.

If you want to have new tables start out with that same font and style, go to the lower part of the sidebar on the left where the table styles are. Find the one that looks like the one you started with. Click the disclosure triangle and choose "redefine style from table". From then on in this document any new tables created from that table style will have the font and style you specified. Do the same for the other table styles if you want to. If you want one of them to be the default table style, choose that in the sidebar also. If this is a new document and you save it as a template and you use that template for new documents, those documents will also have your new table style(s).