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

There is nothing to report.

Numbers use this wordings for the different months :
1月
2月
3月
4月
5月
6月
7月

It's what is returned by several translators which I tried on the net.

The OP use an other 'spelling' and wrote :

Works for 2月, but not 二月. *Both are the same*.

Maybe they are synonymous (I don't know Japanese) but for an application, they aren't the same as I proved with a screenshot :

http://homepage.mac.com/koenigyvan/.Pictures/forum/2010 04/2010_0408i.jpg>

It's about the same odd behavior than the one
of a French user asking Numbers to recognise Ventose as Février (February).
For each language, there is one (not two) list of months names.
This list isn't a Numbers property but a System's one.

So there is nothing wrong about this subject.

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) samedi 17 avril 2010 21:04:56

KOENIG Yvan wrote:
There is nothing to report.

Numbers use this wordings for the different months :
1月
2月
3月
4月
5月
6月
7月

The OP use an other 'spelling' and wrote :

Works for 2月, but not ⼆月. *Both are the same*.

The first uses an arabic numeral and a hanagiro (or katakana) ideogram to say 'second month'.
The second uses hanagiro ideograms for both characters to say 'second month'.

If the OP's claims are correct, OpenOffice.org can recognize and or return either form, while Numbers cannot.

The issue is similar to asking Numbers to recognize/return a time value in a choice of different formats: 2:03 PM, 14:03, something that Numbers/Mac OS X is capable of doing.

Maybe they are synonymous (I don't know Japanese) but for an application, they aren't the same as I proved with a screenshot :

<img src=" http://homepage.mac.com/koenigyvan/.Pictures/forum/2010 04/2010_0408i.jpg>
</div>
Proves only that Numbers does not recognize them as the same.
<img src=" http://i963.photobucket.com/albums/ae116/Barry_images/iWork09screen/Time.png " border="0" alt="Photobucket">

It's about the same odd behavior than the one
of a French user asking Numbers to recognise Ventose as Février (February).
For each language, there is one (not two) list of months names.
This list isn't a Numbers property but a System's one.

Since the name is the same in both (Japanese) examples, it's more akin to asking Numbers to recognize Jan. as January and Feb. as February. Specifically, it's asking numbers to recognize the Unicode CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-4E8C as equivalent to the Unicode DIGIT TWO - 0032 under certain circumstances.

Regards,
Barry

Untmdsprt wrote:
Thank you Barry! Numbers is not capable of recognizing a pattern based on two or more cells as the starting point. This has nothing to do with how the region format is set or actual dates. I don't know if this needs to be defined in preferences or not, but out of the box it doesn't work. Seeing how some people are **** bent in proving everyone wrong, and that nobody has actually answered my original question, I seriously doubt I will ever post here again!

I think Jerry provided a reasonable answer/response to your original question. I'm not able to, as my experience with MS Excel has been limited (and frustrating).

Actually, it is capable of recognizing patterns, but only some patterns.

A,B will continue C,D,...
A,C will continue E,G,... skipping forward two letters at a time.
A,D works as well, moving forward three letters at a time.

Similarly, you can continue series of numbers in steps of 1, 2, 3, etc. using a two cell seed.

Full month names (in English) will continue in the same manner.

A mixture of text and numerals will continue in an incrementing series IF the last character(s) is/are a number.

'Skip counting" works in all of these cases.

Numbers doesn't work for my needs. It's as simple as that. Other long time Excel users may or may not come to the same conclusion as I did. Thank you Apple for providing a trial version. Maybe feedback should be given with a suggestion of having demos comparing Excel and Numbers.

As I said earlier, you use the tool that fits your needs.

Hopefully a moderator will finally lock this topic. In the meantime I will be turning all notifications to get rid of this annoying topic. It's gone on long enough!

True.

Regards,
Barry

Barry wrote:

Works for 2月, but not ⼆月. *Both are the same*.

The first uses an arabic numeral and a hanagiro (or katakana) ideogram to say 'second month'.
The second uses hanagiro ideograms for both characters to say 'second month'.

If the OP's claims are correct, OpenOffice.org can recognize and or return either form, while Numbers cannot.

The issue is similar to asking Numbers to recognize/return a time value in a choice of different formats: 2:03 PM, 14:03, something that Numbers/Mac OS X is capable of doing.

No, it's not the same thing.

The operating system give to Numbers the different date formats which we may see.
It is unable to give two sets :
one with arabic numeral,
one with hanagiro (or katakana) ideogram

Apple applications rely on what the embedded tools are able to do.
As far as I know, allowing the operating system to return the hanagiro (or katakana) ideogram format need the replacement of the list of months names stored in its resources.

openOffice behaves differently. It embed its own code to display / recognize date components.
I would be surprised if Apple change it's application behaviour.
And of course, it would not be a bug repair but a new feature delivery.

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) dimanche 18 avril 2010 11:18:16

If you type those words in consecutive cells, select them all, then drag down on the little circle in the lower right corner of the selection box, it will fill them as you wish. It is not a menu selection but it is a supported feature.

Untmdsprt wrote:
The feature is called "sort lists" in OpenOffice. Excel also has this feature, but I've forgotten the name. This feature is missing in Numbers. It allows you to define a set list that you want repeated when filling cells. You fill in the first two cells then fill (direction) for the rest. I've even tested it using the list "blue, red, orange, banana, cattywumpus," and it correctly went back to "blue" after coming to the last word. I have sent Apple feedback about this missing feature, and maybe they'll look into it for a future version.

Not a 'missing' feature, just one that's done differently. Here's your list, done in two different ways.



Column B and Row 4 were filled using the method described by Badunit.

In column B, the first copy of the list was entered in B4-B8. These cells were then selected and the small handle at the lower right of the selections was dragged down the column to fill in the repeated list.

In row 4, the first copy of the list was entered, the cells (B4-F4) selected, and the handle dragged right (beyond the portion shown in the screen shot).

In column D, the original list was copied from cells B4-B8. Then cells D2-D14 were selected, and command-V was pressed to Paste. Using the Edit > Paste menu item will accomplish the same result. (D2 was chosen as the starting location so orange would be overwritten by orange.)

Regards,
Barry

BTW: Neoffice calls this feature Fill...Series. Using the menu item, it appears to work much as you describe for OOo. But Neo also supports doing this sort of fill in the same manner (dragging a handle) as Numbers.
B

The feature is well described in the User Guide :



Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) lundi 19 avril 2010 10:19:42

Untmdsprt wrote:
Back to the original point of this post. 🙂 Since that time, I've found this site, http://mactutorial.wikidot.com/numbers09 which I'll take a look at. I still haven't found a comparison tutorial yet. I may wait and see if Apple does bring out a new version of iWork and then start making my own comparisons.

So far all that's on that site is Apple's Numbers tutorial videos, which you can find here on the Apple site. The 'value added' at the wikidot site is subtitles and a time labeled transcript for all or some of the videos.

The most probable reasons for no offering a recommendation here for a comparison tutorial is a. none exist, or b. no one here has yet found one.

Barry:

BTW: Neoffice calls this feature Fill...Series. Using the menu item, it appears to work much as you describe for OOo. But Neo also supports doing this sort of fill in the same manner (dragging a handle) as Numbers.

Just checked and found that OOo has the same thing.

I suspected it would, as NeoOffice is a Java implementation based on OOo.

Regards,
Barry

KOENIG Yvan wrote:
The feature is well described in the User Guide :

Hi Yvan,

Actually, the specific feature mentioned is not, at least not on in the Autofilling Table Cells section on p. 76.

Untmdsprt's 'missing feature' note concerned filling a repeating series of text values into a column (or row). The highlighted Insert > Fill > Fill Down fills only the value in the Top Cell of the selection into the rest of the selected cells.

The next bulleted section on that page describes how to fill a series of values down a column, but only for value patterns like days of the week, months, or numeric series.

The behaviour described in my earlier post (and in Badunits's) seems to be missing from the User Guide, or to be more precise, an admittedly brief search did not take me to it.

Regards,
Barry