Numbers table to remain on screen despite scrolling (floating?)

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Level 1

5 points

Numbers table to remain on screen despite scrolling (floating?)

Hello, I have created an expenses project on Numbers, with different tables for various items. I would like the Totals table to always remain visible on screen (float?), despite of me scrolling up or down to view/ edit other tables. As tables grow with more items added, it becomes quite a task having to find where the Totals table is. I have a 2020 i5 MacBook Air running Big Sur 11.4 (clicked on wrong device, please ignore MacBook Pro below). Thank you.

Posted on Jun 19, 2021 3:54 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Badunit

Level 7

28,594 points

Jun 19, 2021 5:11 AM in response to Kris79

If what you want to see is no more than 5 rows, you can make it look like it is floating. It uses Freeze Header Rows to do it and you can have at most 5 header rows so that's the limitation.

Add rows to the Totals table so that the table stretches further down the sheet than all other things on the page.
Format all those extra rows so they have no borders or fill. You want them to be invisible.
Turn your top five rows into header rows.
Make sure Freeze Header Rows is on.
Lock the table.

With your table starting in the middle of the sheet as shown in your screenshot, it will move up to the top as you scroll but will then not move any more. However, if you have the window set to be very short, like just enough to show the Builder table at the top, it is possible the Total table can scroll off the bottom and out of sight when you scroll that direction. You might want to move the Total table to the top of the sheet so it cannot scroll off the bottom.

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Answer 2

Yellowbox

Level 7

21,301 points

Jun 19, 2021 4:25 AM in response to Kris79

Hi Kris,

To move the focus to any table on a sheet, click on the "v" to the right of the sheet tab and choose a table name.

To see this:

The TOTALS table is selected and the focus shows that table, no matter how the other tables have grown.

Regards,

Ian.

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Answer 3

Barry

Level 9

59,951 points

Jun 19, 2021 7:03 PM in response to Kris79

Hi Kris,

You wrote: "@Badunit Genius! "

Agreed!!

Here's an alternate that also does what you want, and is capable of providing more summary rows than five.

Set up your Totals table as you want to see it.

Then duplicate that table, and

replace the formulas in the copy with simple cell references to the same cell on the original.

example: in B2 of the duplicate, youe 'formula' would be TOTALS::B2

Now make as many duplicates of the copy as you need to have at least one copy visible as you scroll up or down the sheet.

Regards,

Barry

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Answer 4

stfflspl

Level 3

587 points

Jun 19, 2021 4:57 AM in response to Kris79

You could move the "TOTALS" table to a dedicated sheet (sheet name e.g. "TOTALS").

Just click on the sheet name "TOTALS" (the bar with the sheet names is always visible) and the table "TOTALS" will be visible in the clicked sheet.

Paul.

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Answer 5

Kris79 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jun 19, 2021 5:04 AM in response to Kris79

Thank you Paul & Ian, I guess the important thing for me isn't to access the Totals per se (it updates automatically anyway) but to have it present in order to see the changes happening. In a different scenario, if this was a presentation at work for example, to be able to indicate how different parts affect an outcome.

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Answer 6

Kris79 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jun 19, 2021 5:44 AM in response to Badunit

@Badunit Genius! Thank you for that, it sure does the trick. Not exactly edit>float>enter but with a little bit of effort it's done. One thing to watch out for (anyone looking to try this in the future), if you try to "merge" cells, for some reason some rows get cut off and you lose the floating table when you scroll to the bottom of the page. Leave individual cells as they are and just make the borders invisible, if you don't want to see empty cells. Otherwise, this works a treat! Thank you so much 🤩

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