how to add cells in numbers

Huang,

I may not have the best eye-hand coordination, so I prefer to use Mark for Move and Move to "Add a Cell" or "Delete a Cell".

Say you begin with a table full of data:

Then Select the cell where you want to "add" a cell, and extend the selection to the right or down, according to how you want the other content to move out of the way. (This is a choice you have to make in Excel too.)

Then you have:

Now, Select the cell to the right of the place where you want to "add" a cell.

Finally, choose Edit > Move.

Notice that you now have a blank cell where you "added" one, and that the table automatically expanded to accomodate the range of cells that moved out of the way.

Similar screen shots could be made for the case of moving the content out of the way downward.

There are Keyboard Shortcuts for Mark for Move and Move. They are Shift-Command-X and Shift-Command-V, so it's not a burdensome as it may appear.

Jerry

You can add rows or columns to or remove (empty) rows or columns from the end of a table by clicking on any cell in the table to activate it, then dragging the row control handle (bottom left), the column control handle (top right) or the row and column control handle (bottom right) down, right, up, left, or diagonally to increase or decrease the size of the table.

You can select one or more columns, rows or cells, then go Table (menu) > Delete Row(s) OR Delete Column(s) OR Add Row(s) Above OR Add Row(s) Below OR Add Column(s) Before OR Add Column(s) After.

You can select a single cell, then press option-arrow key to add one row or column in the directio of the arrow key pressed.

You cannot add or delete a single cell, but you can shift the content of several cells by selecting all of those cells, then dragging the top left cell of that group down or right, leaving one or more empty cells in the original row (or column). OR you can select a group of cells and move the contents up a row or left a column to replace the content of the cells on which this content is dropped.

This is essentially the result you get by 'dleting' or 'inserting' one or more cells in an Excel sheet—the cells are still there, but the content has been shifted.

Regards,

Barry

PS: Highly recommended that as a new Numbers user you download and read at least the first four chapters of the Numbers '09 User Guide for a basic understanding of how Numbers works. Save the rest as a reference for when you need to know more on a specific topic. You'll find a link to the download in the Help menu in numbers.

B

Adding to what Barry posted:

each row (column) has a contextual menu which allows you to add or delete rows (columns). The menu even provides the key combination which Barry suggested.

You can download the free, searchable Users Guide for Numbers here:

http://support.apple.com/manuals/#productivitysoftware