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how to copy a table within a spreadsheet

How do I copy a table, including border styles and all formats, within numbers 09. Basically the same table but for seven different uses. I easily can do it in Lotus 123 and Excell but have failed completely in Numbers. Help please!!!

MacBook Pro 15, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Oct 5, 2010 12:11 AM

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Posted on Oct 5, 2010 1:52 AM

Select the table's thumbnail in the sheet pane then press *_command + D_* (or trigger the menu :
Edit > Duplicate

It's a standard macOS feature.

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) mardi 5 octobre 2010 10:52:07
15 replies

Oct 11, 2010 3:21 AM in response to Bill Jowett

Thanks for the attempted help. But ...

all that i want to do is have a table repeated from time to time in a sheet. eg b3 to d6 and then again from b13 to d16. with the ability to put other text or numerals in the cells inbetween.

if I copy b3 to d6 and try to paste in b13 it pastes the contents but not the borders.

if i select b3 to d6 "duplicate" is not possible.

in any sheet I can duplicate tables but i cannot see how to insert text or numerals between the tables.

in Lotus123 or Excel if i copy b3 to d6 and then paste that in b13 I can still work in, say, b8 to b11

It has to be me - Numbers cannot be THAT awful to use - but what is intuitive in Lotus or Excel just does not work (for me!) in Numbers.

Oct 11, 2010 6:17 AM in response to Bill Jowett

You asked "how to copy a table" and now the question becomes "how to copy a range".

It's definitely not the same thing.

The way other applications behave isn't my problem.
Here, I'm only interested by Numbers behavior.

The copy tool doesn't grab the borders.Is it a deliberate feature or is it a bug, I don't know.
I just know that us, end users, can't change that.

_Go to "Provide Numbers Feedback" in the "Numbers" menu_, describe what you wish.
Then, cross your fingers, and wait _at least_ for iWork'11 😉

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) lundi 11 octobre 2010 15:17:12

Nov 1, 2010 12:31 AM in response to KOENIG Yvan

I appreciate (and apologise for the fact that) my terminology was not clear. All that I can say now is that the sooner I get back to using PCs, which are intuitive and do work, the better.
I have never had a tutorial or outside help with Excel but I have never failed to get Excel to do what i want.
Any time I have a question or a problem the answer seems to be "It doesn't work like that with Apples".

Nov 1, 2010 1:46 AM in response to Bill Jowett

Bill Jowett wrote:


PCs, which are intuitive and do work...


Often "intuitive" seems to be shorthand for "what I'm used to." I'm on the other side of that fence, and find Mac applications far more 'intuitive' than their Windows counterparts. But a large part of that comes from having used Mac applications on a daily basis for many years, and occasionally having to use similar applications on a Windows machine. My own productivity takes a huge hit whenever that happens.

I have never had a tutorial or outside help with Excel but I have never failed to get Excel to do what i want.


I have had a few tutorials and some outside help with Excel, but i still struggle with it (and with the open source applications with similar features), partly because it's 'different' and thus 'less intuitive,' and partly because I don't use it regularly enough to make some actions automatic. The same thing is true with word processing software.

Any time I have a question or a problem the answer seems to be "It doesn't work like that with Apples".


That's fairly common when asking questions from this side of the fence too.

Regards,
Barry

Nov 30, 2010 10:22 AM in response to KOENIG Yvan

Ahh, the warmth of your common or garden Mac user... As hard-hearted as any windoze user—this despite the claims of fuzzy "user-friendliness" or "self-actualisation" that their chosen platform proclaims. Yes, a Mac-user spurned is as indistinguishable from a Windows user as... well, chalk and chalk.

Never fear, Bill Jowett, I too am a dyed-in-the-wool Mac user of gone 20 years, but I confess that I too think that Numbers pales significantly in comparison with Excel. Surprisingly, this is most apparent in its, let's say, 'odd', user-unfriendly behaviour. I am presuming that there may be some patent-avoidance reason for some of the more strange "features" Numbers employs. Not least of which relates to your issue: the way it handles cell borders—which 'borders' on the ridiculous (sorry). The task of adding borders to a number of cells, especially if, say, such borders differ across a table, provides a user experience somewhat akin to rock-breaking in a 19th century prison—painfully slow, tedious and RSI inducing. Then of course, you are unable to copy and paste your hard work to another ( ahem) "range" of the same table. Clearly Numbers inability to copy and paste cell borders (what Excel users might mistakenly call "a cell's format") is simply Apple's way of telling us that it knows best. But don't you dare claim that Numbers' eccentric functionality is unintuitive! Are you mad, Bill? This is an Apple Forum; these are the faithful; such a claim is heresy—and they'll burn you alive!

But I'm with you, Mr Jowett. I'm happiest using Microsoft for my spreadsheet needs. Microsoft Office forms a large part of my daily application usage on my PowerBook, and it will stay that way, I imagine, until Apple wake up to the critical importance users place on "the small stuff" (such as borders). So about iWork'25, then.

Feb 15, 2011 4:43 AM in response to KOENIG Yvan

My point (some time ago) was that I had used Lotus 123 for years - I then converted to Excel without problem and without tutorial or help. Then I tried to use Numbers. There are many things that numbers do not do as easily as Lotus or Excel. This isn't a view from one side of a fence. Two sides of a triangle are very easy to use - the third side is not!

Feb 15, 2011 5:25 AM in response to Bill Jowett

I will just repeat what I often wrote.

Use the tool which fit your needs. Don't rant about a program which never tried to compete against XL.
Apple deliberately choose to build something different for different kinds of users, those which don't need a "gas factory".

Remember the basic rule :

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Apple Human Interface Guidelines:
Apply the 80 Percent Solution
During the design process, if you discover problems with your product design, you might consider applying the 80 percent solution‚ that is, designing your software to meet the needs of at least 80 percent of your users. This type of design typically favors simpler, more elegant approaches to problems.
If you try to design for the 20 percent of your target audience who are power users, your design may not be usable by the other 80 percent of users. Even though that smaller group of power users is likely to have good ideas for features, the majority of your user base may not think in the same way. Involving a broad range of users in your design process can help you find the 80 percent solution.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) mardi 15 février 2011 14:25:38

Feb 15, 2011 12:37 PM in response to Bill Jowett

Bill Jowett wrote:
This isn't a view from one side of a fence. Two sides of a triangle are very easy to use - the third side is not!


Well, if I had ever used Lotus 123, or if I found Excel "easy to use," or if I had read similar comments on Numbers from current users of Lotus 123, I might share your viewpoint. But I haven't (I had no perceived need to use Lotus when it came out), and I don't (as mentioned earlier), and (not surprisingly) I haven't. Still looks like a fence to me. Not a wall, by the way, just a fence; one you can lean on and talk to your neighbor across.

But to action: Two things to do, Bill:

1
If you want Numbers to change to fit your needs, then tell Apple. This is a user to user forum, not a pipeline to the people who design and build the application. Go to the application menu (in Numbers, it's the "Numbers" menu) and Provide Numbers Feedback. That path does go directly to Apple, and to the Numbers developers.

Your specific request—that cell border settings be included when copying a range of cells to paste elsewhere—seems a reasonable one to me. A note to Apple could get them moving in that direction.

2
Meantime, if the lack of this and other features make Numbers an inappropriate tool for your current needs, don't use it. Use the tool that fits the job you need it to do.

Regards,
Barry


PS to Andrew: wrt your comment re 'version 25': Just a reminder that the current version of Numbers is v2.x.x. Still in the early stages, with vast changes yet in store, judging by the differences between v1 and v2.

Feb 15, 2011 4:51 PM in response to Andrew No Thanks

You will get no argument here that Numbers still needs some work, it is only on its second version. But we are only users here, we can't magically fix whatever ails a particular user, we can only provide advice and workarounds. If someone says that they can't wait to get back to Excel, the answer will be "don't let the screen door hit you on the way out". It is not lack of warmth, if it was we wouldn't be helping anyone. It is that we are not the customer complaint line and really don't care to hear whining.

how to copy a table within a spreadsheet

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