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Level 2

399 points

Consolidating charts

I've just started using Numbers today, so I have lot to learn. On the other hand, the project I'm now working on now is very simple, so i'm hoping that it will be extremely easy to do. I'll tell you what I want to do, and I'd like to be told if it can be done before I start looking through the manuals and videos. I want to prepare a chart with 223 rows and 20 columns. The vertical column to the left would have the names of 223 singers, and the columns to the right would be headed by the years from 1920 to 1939. I now have all of the singer's names, but because the templates I'm using have only 45 rows, I've had to prepare five charts.

Is there a way to combine my five charts into one? Is it then a simple matter to forward the consolidated chart as an E-mail attachment? Finally, if you have any thoughts as to a good place to look for such information, i'd like to hear about it.

iDVD 7.1.1 (1150)

Posted on Dec 8, 2012 11:23 AM

28 replies

Badunit

Level 7

25,988 points

Dec 10, 2012 7:40 PM in response to Niku

Adding rows should never result in disappearing rows (what I assume you are calling "lines") or words or anything else. This part of using Numbers should be easy and nearly foolproof so I am at a total loss as to what you might be doing wrong.

There is no better method than dragging for moving rows from one place to another. The other method requires adding a blank row, Copy/Paste (or Mark for Move followed by Move) of everything from the old row to the new one, then deleting the old row. Much more error prone in my opinion, plus it takes several more steps. The worst that can happen with the drag and drop method is you drop the row outside of the table and it makes a new table out of it or maybe you drop it in the wrong place on the table. Either way, you just pick it back up and try again.

Niku Author

Level 2

399 points

Dec 10, 2012 8:01 PM in response to Badunit

Well, I had to check to see if there might be a safer way. I'll just have to forget making those corrections, then, because I'm not going to go through that again. It's nerve-wracking thinking that at any moment the slighest movement in the wrong direction, or the misapplication of pressure, might result in losing the whole thing. Actually, what's more common is the situation where it suddenly occurs to me that there were ten singers a minute ago, but now there are only eight. i then have to go back to see if there were, in fact, ten singers before, and if there were, I have to type them in again. As far as losing pages that can never be found again, it has usually started when I noticed that some of the cells, or rows, or columns, don't fit in with the others anymore, and when I try to fix the anomaIly, I ended up losing the entire page. This happened more than once, but it's never going to happen again. Thanks for your advice.

Badunit

Level 7

25,988 points

Dec 11, 2012 5:02 AM in response to Niku

Can you post a screenshot of what you've developed. Your problems with Numbers make no sense to me. No matter what you do, dragging a row from one place to another will never result in the row (or other rows) disappearing.

A "page" refers to how the spreadsheet is going to appear when printed. The spreadsheet does not actually have "pages", it has tables and charts and textboxes and shapes that you arrange in such a way that, when printed, they will print on specific pages. You can't add or delete pages except by moving or deleting content (such as deleting a bunch of rows or columns from a table, reducing the size of a table or chart so it can be printed on a single page, etc. So I am interpresting your problem of "losing pages" to mean you are somehow deleting rows or columns from your table. But deleting rows and columns is not something that is easy to do accidentally. You might accidentally select an entire row of data and delete the contents but the row itself remains (it just becomes a row of blank cells).

Screenshot: open up your document. Press Command-Shift-4. This will bring up a different looking cursor. Place it at the top left corner of what you want to take a picture of. Hold down the mouse button and drag to make a box that covers the area you want to take a picture of. Let go of the mouse button. The screenshot should be on your desktop. When replying to this message, use the camera icon to insert the screenshot.

Niku Author

Level 2

399 points

Dec 11, 2012 8:09 AM in response to Badunit

SCREENSHOT

I've never used, or noticed, the camera icon before, but it doesn't work. It doesn't move the screenshot here. I'm going to try posting my screenshot the way I did when I posted my last message (by using "Grab". My first screenshot posting is no longer below my message, but I had assumed that it had been deleted for some reason. Here it is again--I hope.

User uploaded file

The screenshot is here...for now.

PAGE: After the confusion about other words I had used, I tried to use the Apple vocabulary. Maybe when I used "Page' I was really thinking of "Sheet". I think that's the word you want.

LINE: By "line" I actually meant the singer's name. Take the Aunt Jemina line. There are five words there. I called it a line.

Maybe my experience with moving singer's names would be helpful. Sometimes there was no problem; other times, I couldn't seem to "grab" the words so that I could move them. I could never see the difference between what I had done on the two attempts. One time it worked, the other time it didn't. This went on and on. I could never find the touch and technique that guaranteed success, and it was while fighting with this problem that I would lose words or names from time to time. "Highlighting" the word or words didn't see to be the answer. It still mystifies me. What should I have done, or not done? Apparently, it's just too delicate for my touch.

Niku Author

Level 2

399 points

Dec 11, 2012 8:11 AM in response to Niku

The screenshot I captured by using "Grab" didn't appear, so I'll try the COMMAND, SHIFT, 4 method again.

Niku Author

Level 2

399 points

Dec 11, 2012 8:15 AM in response to Niku

SCREENSHOT of table in question, I hope.

I left the above so you coud see what happens when I try to use the camera icon.

Niku Author

Level 2

399 points

Dec 11, 2012 8:20 AM in response to Niku

Success. I guess I had too many screenshots on my desktop. Anyway, here's what you wanted.

Badunit

Level 7

25,988 points

Dec 11, 2012 10:36 AM in response to Niku

Well it looks like you have a proper table. Maybe your problem is you are trying to move the contents of cells versus moving an entire row. If you select cells, move them with the little hand-shaped cursor, and drop them on other cells, the old contents get replaced with the new. To move a row you click and hold on the row number (circled in the screenshot below), drag sideways to "lift" the row from the table, then move it. You'll see a blue line on the table that indicates where it will be placed. When the blue line is where you want the row to go, let go. I can't take a screenshot of the process.

You might want to read the users manual some more. The problems you are having sound like you are not using the interface correctly, not whether you are being delicate enough.

Niku Author

Level 2

399 points

Dec 11, 2012 3:33 PM in response to Badunit

It looks like that might be it. I tried softer and harder, center and edge, sneaking up and brazingly attacking, etc, but I never made a point of clicking on the little triangle. However, I guess I did do it, and my successful efforts were probably when I did. I'm going to give it a try tomorrow. I'm still recovering from my defeats in the battle with "Numbers". They take something out of you. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll be more optimistic.

Badunit

Level 7

25,988 points

Dec 12, 2012 10:30 AM in response to Niku

NOT the triangle. I said click on the ROW NUMBER. Anywhere in the box with the row number in it except the triangle will work. Please take a moment to read before you jump in and start doing.

Niku Author

Level 2

399 points

Dec 12, 2012 12:28 PM in response to Badunit

Okay, I'll do that; however, I don't think I've ever clicked there before, INCLUDING my successful efforts (maybe there's more than one way to skin a cat). Nevertheless, I'll follow your instuctions, which I saw just in time, as I just finished putting the finishing touches on the larger project and was getting ready to post it to my Dropbox account. That one didn't require any finessing; it's the much smaller project that caused me all the grief. That's because I happened to compose the larger table with spaces every few rows. That makes it much easier to insert lines, etc. Anyway, I think I can now cope with the technical problems of the smaller table (the one I sent you); I'm now just thinking of compositional and cosmetic problems--what to add, how to make it more user friendly, footnotes, etc. Thanks for your help.

Badunit

Level 7

25,988 points

Dec 12, 2012 12:34 PM in response to Niku

If you need blank rows for inserting "lines", you are obviously not moving rows, you are dragging data from those rows and dropping it into other rows. And that would explain why some of your data is disappearing; you are overwriting it.

Niku Author

Level 2

399 points

Dec 12, 2012 12:59 PM in response to Badunit

I don't understand that. Let's say that I discover that I had forgotten to include a particular singer in my table. Now, I could move rows to make room for the new singer, but suppose there had been blank rows between the singer's names that were already in the table. All I would have to do would be to type the name of the singer that I had forgotten into the blank row. That's one example of how blank rows can make it easier, and safer, to make chages in tables. Just now, on the table you didn't see, I easily made a number of changes/corrections because there were an ample number of blank lines to add, to maneuver, etc. Later, I might drag some rows around, but that can wait.

Consolidating charts