Q: What has been lost in Numbers 3.0 upgrade?

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.

Apple has announced, today (a few weeks late), that some features were omitted from Mavericks iWork and some will be restored in the future. The first handful of restorations are to be included in an app update scheduled for release by May 2014. I have edited my list of things that aren't there anymore and noted which ones are slated for restoration or improvement.

Here's the current list:

Function or feature or issue

• Applescript support has been reduced or eliminated (To be improved by May 2014 - full restoration not mentioned)
• Categories View is gone
• Cell border custom line weight is sometimes lost when using Filter Rows (Probably a but)
• Charted Dates don’t display properly when used as X-Axis values - hope this is just a bug
• Comments can’t be Printed
• Comments can’t be repositioned
• Comments can’t be resized
• Comments only display as Tool Tips now, can’t be static displays
• Conditional Format with Dates doesn’t support all date formats (perhaps just a bug)
• Contacts; Drag and Drop into Numbers from Contacts no longer supported
• CSV file import seems to be limited to dragging a CSV file to the Numbers Dock Icon. Pasting to a table or the canvas is gone
• Custom Formats gone
• Filter action no longer moves content below the table up or down to account for the changing length of the table being filtered.
• Find and Replace Results Pane is gone - was a great navigation tool
• Find and Replace can no longer be used to modify formulas
• Formula Bar is gone, replaced by a field at the bottom of the Numbers window in which the expression is displayed but can not be edited
• Formulas and Functions user guide PDF, easily searchable, is gone, replaced by web help page
• Formula List is Gone
• Graphics Inspector no longer treats a Table as an Object that can be formatted by the Graphics Inspector tools. Or, looking at it from the Table perspective, there is no way to add Shadow effect to a Table’s outline
• Insert > Date and Time is gone
• Insert > Filename is gone
• Keyboard Shortcut reminders have been removed from Drop-Down Row and Column menus
• Media Browser no longer includes a Search field
• Move and Mark for Move are gone from the Edit Menu
• Numbers 08 documents can’t be opened in Numbers 3.0
• Numbers User Guide PDF is gone, replaced by web help page
• Page Headers and Footers are gone (To be restored May 2014)
• Page Margins can’t be adjusted
• Print Preview view not available while editing (Zoom and Windowing to be improved in some way by May 2014 - Editing in Print Preview View not mentioned)
• Pop-Up Menu Format no longer expands with a click of the Spacebar
• QFX Financial File Exchange, bank and brokerage files, import is no longer supported
• Reorganize Panel gone, no multi-level sort. (Multilevel Sort to be restored by May 2014)
• Return key option to set the behavior while editing a cell is gone
• Share Menu is gone, and Export to PDF not longer has the option to make a PDF in Sheet View mode with no page breaks.
• Show Autocompletion List in Table Columns is gone (To be restored May 2014)
• Sort Selected Rows is gone (To be restored May 2014)
• Sorting detector now stops cell references from following the sort movement. This loss a PLUS.
• Split Cells is gone
• Table Background Fill is not supported (distinct from Cell Background Fill which is still supported)
• Toolbar Editor(add, delete, rearrange tool icons) is gone. (To be restored May 2014)
• Trendline Equation and R-Squared values are fixed in place now - formerly were movable.
• Values sometimes replace expressions when V2 documents are opened in V3

Thanks to all of you who contributed to this listing. It has helped many Mac users make informed choices about how to achieve their spreadsheet goals.

Please reply with any corrections you think should be made to this list.

Regards,

Jerry

Hi Jerry, thanks for this.

• Formulas and Functions user guide PDF, easily searchable, is gone, replaced by web help page

... And by an easily searchable context-aware Function Browser that automatically appears on the right, plus enhanced assistance and visual cues for entering formulas.

• Applescript support has been reduced or eliminated (To be improved by May 2014 - full restoration not mentioned)

It would be more accurate to say: All AppleScript support, other than basic GUI menu scripting shared by all Mac apps, has been removed. Some support will be restored.

(It would be a stretch to suggest that 2.3 had "full" support.)

Not sure it makes a whole lot of sense to dump suspected bugs and an intentional change in sorting behavior in together with feature losses, or to list the idea

SG

<Edited by Host>

SG,

Thanks for your input. I think that the things gained have been well covered elsewhere, and it's not a bad idea to link them with the things lost where appropriate.

Losing the PDF versions of the User Guide, and to a lesser degree the Formula and Functions User Guide, is a big deal in that it affects working off-line.

As for the bugs, where things were broken in the transition, that's a loss. And, given Apple's track record on fixing bugs in iWork we could be without these things for years. They will stay on my list until they are fixed.

Jerry

Jerry,

Dumping things in two great separate and unsorted Manichean piles, one good and one bad, can feel satisfying but doesn't necessarily help the analysis. Surely distinguishing bugs from design decisions and listing them separately would better help users make informed choices, the stated goal.

Good point about needing convenient references. For that not to be deemed a "lost" feature, though, it seems 68 separate pdfs would be needed, two for each language. Is that what Numbers 2.3 had? ... Surely non-English speakers should not just go without.

The Function Browser works for me. It doesn't have the "Formulas and functions overview" that can be found online but I think the entries on the functions are identical, on the Mac, in iCloud, and on the iPad. Is that a loss because it's not in pdf?

I'm just saying that now that the venting has taken place and the pile has been gathered, largely thanks to you, it helps all of us to sort out the thinking a little.

SG

Another thing gone missing in action.

I used to keep financial records and the previous numbers would allow the import of .ofx financial transaction files.

Not any more.

Come on Apple this is appalling.

Unfortunately before becoming aware of all these shortfalls I deleted the original iWork hopefully I can get it back using Time Machine?

TB,

In the list I just updated above there's an entry that has been there for a couple versions of the list:

• QFX Financial File Exchange, bank and brokerage files, import is no longer supported

I intended that to cover the import that you just mentioned. I'll ammend the list to add that suffix.

Jerry

Thanks for your comments, SG. I've tried to represent each issue that has been raised by concerned users here. To the extent that I was able, I tried to confirm each issue here before adding to the list. The early versions of the list had some items that weren't gone, just moved out of sight. I tried not to dwell on this form of "loss", even if some users will find this a less convenient interface and a less productive app for that reason.

There are still a few items that I have not put on the list because I can't duplicate the "problem" here. These are most likely bugs, but unless a bug can be described in terms that make it reproducible, there's nothing to report.

Jerry

Thanks for the response.  I did pretty much the above mentioned except I didn't bother making a copy.  I simply opened my document in version 3.0 then copied and pasted the cells with the custom formats into the new document.  It was great that all the attributes copied over, and that I could use the same custom formats anywhere in the new document.  If I start a new document however, the custom formats are not available.  I need to copy and paste them again.  It would be nice if I could create the formats in the new numbers 3.0.  Maybe it is possible and I just haven't yet found a way.

This is so depressing.

I had no idea they had deleted features I cared about until I opened a spreadsheet with headers and footers, only to find them gone. Worse than that, when I closed the spreadsheet - without saving it - it updated the "last changed date" and the format, so that I can no longer even open it in Numbers 2.3. Thanks, Apple, for destroyting my document without warning. Hopefully Time Machine will work and I can get the old version back; otherwise I am up the creek without a paddle.

It's enough to drive me to consider using Excel, as much as I loathe anything Microsoft.

Hi Rick,

Unless you deleted it, the old Numbers 2.3 is still on your Mac "hidden in plain sight" so you don't need to make a trip to Time Machine for that. It's in a subfolder within Applications named iWork '09 or similar.  The two versions can be open at the same time.

A document that you opened in Numbers 3.0 can be exported back to Numbers 2.3:

See Apple's support document about their plans to add back features they say over the next six months. Also check out the workarounds thread and features gained thread.  Meanwhile, you've got two apps for the price of none.

SG

Exporting to 2.3 unfortunately won't recover my lost formatting, but it's a start. Thanks.

Rick,

Did you try File > Revert to... ?

Jerry

Without looking through 14 pages of this thread, did drag and drop import of CSV files get mentioned as a casualty?  I use that feature in a particular document, a document I update frequently with new data from a CSV file.  The document has a pre-formatted table (formatted as text) and I could drag a CSV file to cell A1 to import the data.  Now that I cannot drag and drop, I also cannot use a pre-formatted table. Instead I have to open the CSV as a new Numbers document and it creates a new table for me. The result, however, is that text such as "7.10" gets formatted as a number as "7.1".  I need the full text.

I haven't found a workaround for this problem yet. I tried opening the CSV in TextEdit, replacing commas with tabs, then pasting the result into my Numbers table. Unfortunately, some of the text data in the CSV contains commas so this didn't work out so well.

I am still trying to figure out if or how I can use this new version of Numbers.

While trying to figure out a workaround, I noticed something different than what I posted previously.  If I open my CSV file using Numbers 2.3, it formats the data correctly.  I don't need a pre-formatted table. It appears there is a change in the way CSV files are imported in 3.0.

So, my workaround (if I choose to use 3.0) is to open the CSV in 2.3 then copy/paste to 3.0. 

Interstingly, while many things seem faster in the new version, opening this CSV file is much slower. The file has roughly 10,000 data points. It takes 3 seconds to open it in Numbers 2.3. It takes 18 seconds to open it in Numbers 3.0.