What has been GAINED in the Numbers 3.0 upgrade?

Some of the menus use larger text and are easier for me to read. That's balanced out by the controls that have no labels at all and you have to guess what they are for. It's a wash in that area, I guess.

Jerry

I took a look at the Numbers 3.0 Function Browser list and compared it to that of Numbers 2.3, and there are five functions in 3.0, not in 2.3:

INTERSECT.RANGES

POLYNOMIAL

SERIESSUM

UNION.RANGES

WEIBULL

These five are also in the new iOS Numbers 2.0 Function Browser.

Does this count as five things gained or just one ;-)?

One important, to me, function lost in the new Numbers is the way it handles COMMENTS. I have a spreadsheet with a dollar number in a cell. That value is the sum of numerous credit card purchases. Previously, I would add a comment listing all the vendors, dates, and prices. I would leave the Comment open and drag the box to the edge of the spreadsheet. Easy to see the separate charges.

In the new Numbers, the Comment opens directly above the cell containing it. No way to move it aside. There is room for about 30 characters and 5 rows. No way to resize it. The only way to see what the contents, is to click in the box, and use the scroll arrows to move about. A big problem. Five rows of only 30 characters is not very many. And when I scroill down, obviously text scrolls off the screen above. When the comment is first selected, a scroll box appears for about one second. No way is it there long enough to grab it. And NO way to leave it open.

Summary: No way to resize. No way to move it aside. No way to leave it open.

A small gain in the function building dept. When you type an = in the cell, the Inpector on the right makes way to the Function Browser, with the help for the first alphabetic function, ABS, the default selection, below that.

Two things:

1) is the fact that the Inspector is at the right of the window automatically, without having to click on the Inspector button at the top right of the window as in Numbers 2.x, another gain for 3.0?

2) What if, after you typed in enough of the function to tell Numbers which function you're doing, say, after you typed in the left parentheses, e.g., "=INTERSECT.RANGES(", that the function browser at the top would disappear and the function help for that function would come to the top so you could see more of it? Would this be a worthwhile feature request to make for an Numbers 3.x improvement?

SG,

Love the chart.

Jerry

Hi SG,

Thanks for starting a thread that lists the good features of Numbers 3. There are some good features, many of which have been the basis of discussions in the Numbers forum for some time. Perhaps Apple does take note of user feedback. Some new features make it easier to perform common tasks. For example, we now have the ability to rotate axis labels on charts (graphs) which was only possible by an awkward workaround in Numbers 2 (by using text boxes to cover the non-rotatable axis labels).

I ask everyone to take some time to play with Numbers 3 with **disposable copies** of their old files, or start with a blank Numbers 3 document. Nobody likes change thrust upon them, but sometimes taking a walk around a new neighbourhood is a good way to take note of good features that were not available in the 'good old' home.

At first, I could not delete a Table. Click at the top left on the 'move' handle (bullseye) then press the delete key.

Or delete a Sheet. Click on the Sheet name.

I saw a comment that we can no longer add a shadow to a Table. Oh dear! But a Numbers 3 workaround will do it:

A bit of lateral thinking suggests inserting a rectangle Shape, add a shadow to the rectangle, then

Menu > Arrange > Send to Back

and slide it behind the table.

The alignment guides are still there to assist in resizing and moving the rectangle. Turn on the alignment guides in

Numbers > Preferences > Rulers

Gosh! We can even change the colour of the alignment guides back the colour they had in Numbers 2.

Take a walk around the block in Numbers 3 and play with some new documents. See what Numbers 3 has to offer.

Warning: do not try this with the only copy of an old Numbers document. If you save it in Numbers 3, the conversion is not reversible.

Regards,

Ian.

P.S I could not resist posting a tacky example of my playing in Numbers 3:

Ian,

Nice summary, and interesting news on the Chart labels.

Jerry

Hi SG,

What else does Numbers 3.0 actually do better than the old Numbers and its competitors? Seriously.

Yes, let's be positive. Keep this thread alive.

1. Another feature added to Numbers 3. As well as comments attached to Table Cells (as in Numbers 2), we can now add a comment to a Chart (graph), a Shape or a Text Box. Select the object then click on the Comment button in the Toolbar. A coloured square shows that a comment is attached to that object.

If nothing is selected, a comment box will appear on the canvas and can be moved by dragging (as in Numbers 2).

Neither the comment nor the square will print (which I think is the right way).

2. Yet another feature (I learnt this from the Pages forum) is an easier way to manage Templates. In Template Chooser, right click (or control click) on one of My Templates. Rename or delete. No more hunting for the hidden My Templates folder. Good move, Apple!

Hint: if you have set Numbers 3 preferences to open a preferred Template upon startup (or Menu > File > New), you will need to hold down the good old option key to see New From Template Chooser in the File Menu.

Perhaps other users could try the option key, or other modifier keys as they play around in Numbers 3. Maybe more secrets will be revealed for reporting to this thread.

Nobody likes change thrust upon them. However, with lots of perseverance and patience we can learn how Numbers 3 does things differently from Numbers 2.

I must admit I prefer Numbers 2, but here is an example of a reasonably acceptable scientific graph in Numbers 3.

I had to play around to change the view from Numbers 3 defaults. But I found that the the Numbers 3 defaults are no worse than the default Excel paradigm of salesmen in North, East, South and West districts reporting on sales for each quarter year! (Yuk.)

Regards,

Ian.

Ian,

If you are willing to serve, I would like to appoint you** to keep the list of improvements. As you must know, I've made a list of what's gone. You could do improvements, and if you don't mind, a list of things that are simply hidden, and where they are now.

Jerry

**Not that I have any authority 🙂

I haven't stepped into the sharing pond, so I know little of its workings.

Jerry

Hi Jerry,

It's a deal.

I now call upon all users to post to this thread (started by SG) any improvements that Numbers 3 has over Numbers 2.

It will make my job easier if:

• you post here (I can not search all threads);
• you confine your comments to improvements;
• you can reveal hidden improvements (without complaining that Numbers Help did not tell us);
• any tips or tricks you have found to work around anything that appears (for the time being) to be missing.

Please do not use this a whinge thread. We have enough of those. This thread is for those who have discovered the charm of Numbers 3 and want to help other people.

Warning: if you have downloaded Numbers 3, beware of opening and then saving old documents in Numbers 3. Conversion back to Numbers 2 may not keep all the features of your Numbers 2 documents (even with Menu > File > Export To > Numbers'09).

Hint: if you are looking for your Numbers'09 (Numbers 2) app, it is in your Applications folder, inside a folder called iWork'09. You can run both versions of Numbers at the same time. Just be sure which one you are using (Menu > Numbers > About Numbers) before saving.

I am using Numbers 2.3 and Numbers 3.0 on a Mac running OS X Mavericks (10.9). I know very little about iOS, so you will need to explain to other iOS users

Regards,

Ian.

Hi SG,

Ian, should he choose to accept the mission, could take over the table underlying the bubble chart and perhaps even "share" it on iCloud so we can all watch the bubbles grow.

Oh, no! Not iCloud! That seems to be a can of worms (see other discussions about documents or features disappearing after going through the iCloud "one size fits all" process).

I am happy to use your bubble chart* and place it in my DropBox with a link for all to view.

*BTW, there was a request some time ago for a bubble chart in Numbers. I remember suggesting placing circle Shapes and resizing them in Inspector > Metrics. No reply. And Inspector is now (ahem) different).

Regards,

Ian.