What has been lost in Numbers 3.0 upgrade?

The new Version of Numbers is terrible. I have three offices, Singapore, Australia and the Philippines and all my staff over night became unproductive because of the amount of changes in this upgrade.

Apple - we are your customers and spend a lot of money on your products. Don't treat your customers like fools.

I paid good money for these products. What I now have in three offices I did not and would not purchase.

Some of these features that no longer exist is a disgrace.

I WON'T MY $45,000 REFUNDED that I have spent on Apple products in the last couple of years.

APPLE is causing my business more issues now then benefits !!

Hi pdhussey,

Maybe you should take this up with Apple directly.

Your Numbers 2.3 works as well as ever, if you find it the best tool for your business (though it doesn't work well with mobile). Unless you deleted it, it's in the iWork '09 subfolder under Applications. You can export documents back to the old format by File > Export to > Numbers '09...

SG

Haha. Apple do not want you to be productive. They slave you to the platform, then make Numbers 4 almost what 2 was. This is the cycle of Apple, making things drummer then smarter. I think they are making Numbers dumb enough to be accepted in IOS, and that will be the end of it.

I think a lot of people liked the simpler Numbers compared to Excel, but to make it dumber is truly sad. Very short-sighted. I am looking for something else now. All I want to do is edit easily in a cell, and pressing option- return every time I want a new line is just stupid now when I could have decided what default I wanted.

Apple are becoming monsters, but what can you expect? I read that the innovation of Apple to keep it up is dying, so time to cycle to something else.

This is the cycle of Apple, making things drummer then smarter.

Yes, Apple does march to the beat of a different drum, and that has changed many lives. Not sure I agree with your other thoughts, though.

SG

Hi Bondi,

All I want to do is edit easily in a cell, and pressing option- return every time I want a new line is just stupid now when I could have decided what default I wanted.

Pressing option- return places a soft return (new line) within a cell. My last experience with Excel required the same keystrokes, a carry-over from word processing apps for compatibility of use.

So, what is so difficult now that Numbers 3 requires the option key? In my humble opinion, pressing the option key when I want a new line within a cell is so much easier than changing the settings in:

Numbers 2.3 > Inspector > Table > Table Options > untick Return key moves to next cell.

A spreadsheet (in my humble opinion) is for entering data in a cell, then moving to the next cell. Or do you want a spreadsheet app to be a word processor?

This thread is meant to identify what features have been lost. If you want to rant, please do not rant at fellow users. We are volunteers.

Regards,

Ian.

Ian,

I do not have to use a spreadsheet the way you or others do. Having the option of CHOICE is what made the difference. Now I do not have it. Just because it is ok with you, it took outa basic frequent function I use with me. I want the CHOICE back. Not to change it to my way and all you guys have to press option return to shift cells.

SG,

As for dumber and smarter, it is a cycle. They do one stupid thing, then go through many versions to get it back to some useful method. If you have not noticed, the shift to iOS on laptops is slowly coming. I think it takes longer to do thongs in iOS then ever. I fundamental test on using apps is keystrokes. Think how many keystrokes it takes you to something, and if it takes more as things develop, then that's dumber,

In my opinion, of course.

Having the option of CHOICE is what made the difference. ... I want the CHOICE back. Not to change it to my way and all you guys have to press option return to shift cells.

We've got the old Numbers 2.3, which works as well as ever. And now we've got Numbers 3 (essentially a different app) that has some of the old things and also some new things. That's more choice than before, not less. We can use the tool best suited to doing the particular job at hand.

SG

SG,

So you feel that the best choice is not to integrate what 2 and 3 have, but to pick one or the other?

Do you work at Apple? Whatever the case, don't limit my use of an app as you see fit.

So you feel that the best choice is not to integrate what 2 and 3 have, but to pick one or the other?

The world is full of engineering tradeoffs. 2 has some nice features that I doubt would ever work cross-platform very well. If those are important to you and you don't care about mobile, I'd say use 2. If you want to do mobile data entry or collaborate online or display your work on an iPad or work with interactive charts, then I'd say use 3. If you've got heavy duty spreadsheet or database work that Numbers isn't designed to do, then use Excel or Filemaker, or whatever. I say use the best tool for the job.

Do you work at Apple?

Never have. Never will. Just a user (as I presume you are).

don't limit my use of an app as you see fit.

Even if that were within my power, I would never think of limiting your use of anything.

I'd just encourage you to view these apps as different tools with different strengths and weaknesses, and choose the tool that does the job for you. If that tool happens to be Numbers 3.0 (or 2.3) then by all means ask specific questions about how to get things done.

SG

I just opened a spreadsheet for the first time since I upgraded to Number 3.0.1. I had page headers with vital information and the headers are just gone. I see in the original post that this was an enhancement of the upgrade. Now what are we supposed to do without page headers? I don't understand why page headers would be removed. SHouldn't the file conversion have done something with the headers I had in there other than delete them? I am crazed because I have to get this job out and I don't know what to do. If I add more cells to the top of the page to make a pseudo header I will change all the row numbers and my calculations will be screwed up. I just don't understand this. Is there something that I am missing here?? I read the first five pages of this conversation but not all 18 pages. Did anyone find a workaround for this?

Your best bet is to open your spreadsheet in Numbers 2.3 which Apple has kept in a sub folder in your Applications directory; look for iWork 09 or similar or search for "Numbers" with Spotlight to locate it.

Hopefully you didn't save the converted spreadsheet because Numbers 3 changes it's format. OIf you did, restore a backup copy from Time Machine or use the Export command in Numbers 3 to reverse-convert the file.

Thanks Larry. I called the Apple Business line and that is what they told me. I had to use the time machine/conversion approach but it all worked. I thank you for your reply. I don't see the "This helped me" link on your reply to give you more points.

Then throw numbers 3 in the trash, use the old one until they come up with a real upgrade. That's what I did.

Anyid,

glad it helped.

Larry

alightman and Larry Nolan

My understanding is once you have worked on a spreadsheet in Numbers 3 you can not go back to numbers 2.3? (old version)

We are getting messages where it says you can not open this file (numbers file) in this version. Upgrade to V3.

Because I upgraded (bad mistakes) and started using various files in Numbers 3 this has forced my three other office locations (Aust | Singapore | Philippines) to have to upgrade as well so they can access these file.

Going back and restoring these from Time Machine would mean we would loses any updates made to the files. (to risky)

Is Deleteing the Numbers 3 Version still an option or do we just have to live with it?

Also what do think Apples Objective is with this upgrade. They appear to have removed so many features. There must be a reason. Is it to make numbers more compatiable with Mobile Devices?

Lastly - I've been an Apple User for 10 years and Apple was great. Now, in the last year I just have ongoing problems. Is this unique to me or are their products slipping.