What has been lost in Numbers 3.0 upgrade?

I should add that the colurs pallet is completly rediculous too. I have worked out you can change the colours so long as the colour already exists as a cell background or font colour in a table. Just select the cell and then bring up the colour pallet and then drag from existing colour down to one of the xisting colours to replace it. Although this doesn't translate across from one table to another so you have to open your table up in another program to put the colour samples in.

Also I feel like I'm doing more clicks while using this app compared to the previous version. For me this has to be one of the biggest f-ups I've experienced. There have been some doozies but this one really takes the cake for me. Not counting bugs of course since they are not normally intensional.

I asume your not refering to the positiopn of the table on the sheet? But rather the print layout? Havn't seen it myself.

Yes, the print margins.

Hmm I just realised I can sort by right clicking on a cell heading and the contextual menu gives an asending or decending sort option. Not exactly as flexable as the old system.

I just have thrown new Pages and Numbers into the Thrash and returned to the previous version. Couldn't cope with "page view" missing - that was the feature that beats Excel, one of the main reasons I switched to Numbers in the first place.

I managed to get a custom cell format when I opened a table that I made in Numbers '09, copied a cell with custom formats and pasted it into the new table (created in Numbers 3.0 (upgraded with Mavericks)). In the new table's Data Format drop down menu there are new menu items added to the list of formats called "Custom Format 4," "Custom Format 1" etc (the same names the custom formats were called in Number '09). If I create a new Numbers 3.0 file, the pasted custom formats are not available for the new file's tables. I have not yet found a way to edit the pasted custom formats in Numbers 3.0 nor figured out how to create new custom formats from within the app/program.

HI facile,

Create a Custom Format in a Numbers 2 document. Save. Then Save As… a copy with a new name so Numbers 3 can't snaffle your original Numbers 2 document. Open the copy in Numbers 3 and the Custom formats will be listed in Format Inspector > Cell Data Format. The Custom Formats are carried over and they work.

Workaround: by cullen15 in https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5506468?answerId=23657853022#23657853022&ac_cid=tw123456#23657853

Note: copy and paste of cells from Numbers 2 to Numbers 3 does not carry the custom format. Pasted cells end up as Text format.

Regards,

Ian.

Apple has just posted a list of features to be restored in the next 6 months:

Numbers

• Customize toolbar
• Improvements to zoom and window placement
• Multi-column and range sort
• Auto-complete text in cells
• Page headers and footers
• Improvements to AppleScript support

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6049?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

sitryd wrote:

One addition that I haven't seen mentioned (though, in fairness, I also haven't read all nine pages):

Numbers 2.3 had a feature I *loved* that let you use formulas to define the range for a chart. I used this on several charts in my biggest spreadsheet that were pulling data from the same table - one chart looked at a number of variables by month, another by season, and another by year. You could set the X-axis values by something using an INDIRECT formula and reference rows corresponding to the first and last dates for that range. It was awesome, and very useful.

I dont know why they would have taken it away - it wasnt a feature that "confusing" to your average user, because unless you spontaneously decided to try programming the chart you wouldnt even see it was there. But in it's absence, I've had to create three copies of the table referenced, which is quite frustrating.

Sitryd,

Could you post an example of this Numbers 2.3 feature. I've not heard of it, nor can I figure out how one would use it.

Jerry

I threw out the "upgrade." Most people that use spreadsheets use them for the tasks they can perform and to make life easier. Numbers 3 fails! You can't even drag a contact into the spreadsheet. What business is going to want to now type in multiple contacts? Not me. I will stick with the Numbers that I have been using for our small business for years. Pages lost mail merge too. Mail Merge has been around since ClarisWorks! I sure hope that Apple isn't abandoning the business market. I'm not really interested in purchasing Microsoft versions for these pieces of software.

papalapapp wrote:

Adding missing feature: When expanding a filtered list, the tables underneath don't move down. Result: overlapping tables. If you have transparent tables, you get an instant mess.

Thanks Pap, I've added that to my list.

Jerry

AppleJosie wrote:

Also in another part of this thread it was mentioned that table fill is missing. If that was refering to the ability to apply a formula to other cells by dragging the lower right corner of the formula's cell, the feature is not gone. The UI behavior is slightly different. Now you drag the center bottom of the cell.

Josie,

I'll explain further...

There were two levels of Background Fill in Numbers 2.3. Background fill is a color or image behind the text. In Numbers 2.3, you could not only place fill in a table cell, but you could fill the background of an entire table's Body (all cells not in Headers or Footers).

Jerry

josekimber wrote:

Jerry

Another item for your list. It used to be possible (in Numbers 09, the only one I had) to select a range of cells and then select "SUM" from the list in the functions button. That feature has disapeared - now if you click "SUM" it adds the whole column. If you just want a total for a range, you have to insert a formula (=SUM) and then select your cells or type them in, much slower...

Jose,

This functionality was moved to a different location in the Numbers window. Across the bottom of the window is a bar filled with stats functions, and a gear wheel icon where you can select other stats. These will respond to a selection range and can be dragged to a table to calculate the stat on that range.

Jerry

Think something drastic needs to be done to CMD+F (find) as well. What an absolute disgrace that this poor level of design and usability was allowed to happen. I just found three entries of something I was looking for. The first one was positioned under that silly sheet tab line! The next two were not found at all on the 75% view, that is, after the find function has moved to the wrong place.

Who authorised this complete mess of a version?

Martin

Of course -

So I first discovered the feature in the context of a spreadsheet that tracks my (cycling) racing form over the course of a season (which is a function of your fitness and your body's fatigue from training). In the Numbers 2.3 version of the spreadsheet, there is one table that calculates each of these values for every day of the season (as the values depend on the previous days results). I was able to then pull discrete sections of the table for use in different charts (e.g., form over the last month, racing form from 1 week in the past through 3 weeks in the future, form over the entire season) without having to have duplicative copies of the table...

Did this using an INDIRECT function call entered into the DATA field specifying the range of cells to use for the charts, e.g.:

This will dynamically re-generate the chart based on the range of defined as Form::C_:C__ (Multiplier Start is poorly named, and is a cell defining the row corresponding to the first day of the month; with Multiplier End defining the row for the last day of the month). This lets you have the chart automatically refresh when, say, you tell it to show you the form results from November instead of October.

(edit:) As a workaround in Numbers 3, before I reverted to 2.3 for this sheet, I had to create separate tables for every instance of the chart referencing the appropriate values from the main (calculating) table. But this was obviously much much more inefficient, and required several dozen more calculations per refresh of the spreadsheet.