Apple, for whatever reason, chooses to call the column and row numbers "reference tabs." I somehow made them disappear and would like them back. Help, not surprisingly, does not respond to "reference tabs." How do I get them back? Thanks
MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), 250G, 500G, 1T Ext HDs; CS 5
Never mind. Apple cleverly hides them unless you click on them. Beat me why but there it is. Thanks anyway.
The logic behind the behaviour seems to be 'you need to see the numbers and letters only when you require a cell address, and you only need that while you are editing the table. At other times, the numbers ad letters are just a distraction and detract for the appearance of the table. So, except when you are editing or entering data on the active table, we've chosen to not show these reference tabs. When you need them, they are easily shown by making the table active (by clicking on any cell).
Regards,
Barry
Thanks, Barry, for the insight. I disagree with Apple but, hey, its their program so what can you do? One would think that the presence of an item called "reference tabs" would require a Help item called "reference tabs." But that is, apparently, not consisten with Apple policies.
A search of the Numbers '09 User Guide (a much better resource than the 'Help' document) will bring up several relevant hits, most in Chapter 3, Using Tables.
The guide is an easy read, and can be downloaded through the Help menu in Numbers '09.
Apple provides a second reference through that menu as well; the iWork Formulas and Functions User Guide. This one is more of a reference manual to keep on hand while writing formulas for tables in any of the iWork applications.
Regards,
Barry
Barry: Thanks for the info. I've downloaded the manuals and will refer to them. Maybe Apple should just get rid of the Help rather than having it be half useful.
While I agree with Barry that the user guides are better than the Help, when I searched Numbers Help for "reference tab" I got 15 hits in Help, one of which was a link to the page that includes this item:
Use the reference tabs and handles that appear when you select a table cell to quickly reorganize a table, select all the cells in a row or column, add rows and columns, and more. Selecting a Table Cell describes how to select a table cell.
(My bold.)
reference tabs
