Used Excel for an extremely long time, now using OpenOffice...

Untmdsprt wrote:
My computer is not wrong, I had the region setting to Japanese while the rest of the system is in English. Numbers is confused because of this. I switched it back to the United States region format, and Numbers works correctly. To me this is unacceptable. I live in Japan and need Japanese dates, numbers, etc. but I'm not fluent in Japanese yet. And no it doesn't work correctly either when I type 一月、二月、etc.

When Yvan made the remark about using the language the machine is running in affecting its recognition of 'date' entries, he had likely read your location in the short profile to left of your post. That you are running with " the region setting to Japanese while the rest of the system is in English" would confirm that rather than a "vague" remark, this was a legitimate 'possible cause' for the misbehaviour of Numbers.

Since that post, it appears you have tested whether Numbers works as expected when the start of the series is entered in Japanese, and found that it does not.

That would indicate, as you note below, that the issue lies in the localization of Numbers for Japan.

Other than applying the combo update, there's little that can be suggested to fix the issue by a user not using a setup similar to yours.

The date function is messed up if you have the region setting different from the language you're using. I have mine set in the English language, but Japanese date and number format. Whether the combo update would fix this, I don't know because I'm not going to be bothered in downloading it at this time.

"not going to be bothered" or "can't be bothered" is, I suppose a legitimate attitude.

For others who are making the switch from Excel to Numbers, I suggest getting OpenOffice (or NeoOffice) first and then learn Numbers in your spare time. Numbers does everything in an oddball way which will take some time in getting used to.

A reasonable suggestion.



Before dropping the topic though, I hope that you will use either the Numbers menu item or this link to Provide Numbers Feedback regarding the issue. Posts in this forum are user-to-user, and not generally reviewed by Apple employees. Posts to the Feedback link go directly to Apple and the development teams for the software involved.

Regards,
Barry

What is returned by the formula

=MONTHNAME(2)

on a machine running a Japanese system ?

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) jeudi 8 avril 2010 14:02:21

I apologize but I am unable to navigate in a Japanese system.
If I run Numbers in japanese on my French system, the formula returns "février".

I'm not sure that it returns "february" on a Japanese one.

When I ask google to translate february in japanese, it returns "2月"
*_If Numbers returns this value_*, it's normal that the auto-fill function doesn't apply to "february".
It would apply to "2月" returning:
3月
4月
5月
6月
7月

Numbers used in English, in Russian or in Chineese on a Japanese system will return the same month names.

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) jeudi 8 avril 2010 14:08:11

Untmdsprt wrote:
English language, Japanese region setting = returned it as ２月
English language, US region setting = returned "February"
English language, France region setting = returned "février"
Japanese language, France region = returned "février"
Japanese language, Japanese region setting = returned ２月
Japanese language, US region setting = returned "February"

I am assuming that Numbers looks at the region setting regardless of the language the system is in. At this point, Numbers doesn't work correctly when the region is set to Japanese. It does work correctly when the region is set to an European language.

If the region is set to Japanese, the autofill function must apply to ２月, not to february !

*If it does, returning*:
２月 (starting cell)
3月
4月
5月

february (starting cell)
february
february
february
*it's the correct behaviour.*

If it doesn't, it's a bug.

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) jeudi 8 avril 2010 14:35:01

I fixed the region to Japanese and got :



which is the designed behaviour !

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) jeudi 8 avril 2010 14:39:41

Untmdsprt wrote:
Works for 2月, but not 二月. Both are the same.

Clearly they aren't !

Another quirk is if you have the language set to US English, it doesn't work right with any region code that uses English.

You are wrong.

I set the system to US English, region to United Kingdom and it behaves flawlessly.



I can't guess what you did wrongly but sure you did.

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) Thursday, April 8, 2010 16:48:30

As I'm not behind you, I can't guarantee but I guess that I know what you did wrongly:
you sat the language to US English but didn't restarted the system.
So, Finder and Numbers where running in English but the System was running Japanese.
To apply the auto-fill feature, it required 2月 as starting point.

I repeat that itsn't a Numbers issue.
You decided that your way to 'spell' month names is the correct one but itsn't the one choosed by Apple.

You must use the Apple wording or leave the app.

Good bye.

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) samedi 17 avril 2010 07:46:30

Untmdsprt wrote:
Update: after using Numbers for awhile, I'm going back to OpenOffice for my main needs. The date issue that Numbers has is unacceptable in my book.

Overall my opinion about Numbers is it's good for general stuff, but people like me who are used to Excel, need to find something more powerful. I will keep an eye open if Apple decides to bring out a new version of iWork.

Nothing wrong about that decision. You use the tool that works for you. I hope that before leaving Numbers (for now), you did Provide Numbers Feedback to request a solution to this issue.

Numbers menu > Provide Numbers Feedback.

Regards,
Barry