How do I downgrade back from Numbers 3.0 to Numbers 2.3

Hi Yellowbox,

Thanks for the heads up about that. Here is what I've encountered so far.

It still lists Numbers v.3.0 as Default at the top of the menu in Finder windows as well as in the Get Info window but that doesn't appear to influence which version of Numbers opens an existing document.

The "Get Info" method has so far worked to change the version which opens a particular numbers document. I set it to 2.3 and clicked change all. This change has persisted to stick through restarts of the computer as well as restarts of both 2.3 and 3.0 on my system.

I've also added both versions to the Dock and usually open an Application first from there and then use "Open Recent" to open an existing document but clicking a document in a Finder window or through Spotlight also opens it with Numbers 2.3 at the moment.

There may be other consequences of Version 3.0 still being listed as Default but I haven't encountered them yet so for some purposes a combination of the workarounds may work.

Yellowbox wrote:

Caution: do not save an old document in Numbers 3 if you want to keep it as Numbers 2 format. You can tell which version is open from Menu > Numbers > About Numbers.

Hi Ian,

I see you've got one foot in the water too! I am sure you and UmiBi have noticed that should one slip up and open an old document in Numbers 3 and save it by mistake, not all is lost. In Numbers 3 you can convert back to Numbers 2 format:

Not sure what might get lost in translation, though, aside from bubble and interactive charts and star ratings. From what people are reporting, mysterious errors seem to creep into formulas in old documents opened in Numbers 3.0. Going back to Numbers '09 so far doesn't seem to have been a problem, though.

SG

Hi UmiB and SG,

Thanks for the clarification! I now see that Get Info does stick, but is trying to force me to default to Numbers 3. Caution is my middle name, and I won't trust the two versions of Numbers to convert back and forth seamlessly. For now, I will keep my Numbers 2 documents wrapped in cotton wool while I play around with "disposable" documents in Numbers 3 to see what it can do better.

My experience of converting between Numbers and Excel (or between Pages and Word) tells me to be wary of "additive" faults that eventually become so entagled that a document becomes useless.

Regards,

Ian.

Hi Ian,

That remains solid advice.

Umi.

Ian,

I'm lucky, I guess, in not having a large collection of legacy documents. So I have less at risk.

As have you, I would guess, I've read several cases of Numbers 3.0 apparently messing up dates, or column references, or dropping charts when opening Numbers 2 documents.

As with transitions to different versions in the past for almost any software I've used, OS X or Windows, I've found it's wise to give imported documents a careful manual inspection "tune up" as it were, while keeping those backups!

Of course most of us don't like to do that. We want things to "just work."

And often things do seem to just work, but then we discover they don't quite, in small but important ways. Perhaps a little like my brain.🙂

SG

Using Get Info to change the default for all documents doesn't "stick" as long as a newer version is installed in your Applications folder. You can have the iWork '09 apps be the default but still have the new apps installed. After I installed the new iWork updates I created a folder on an external drive & named it "other applications." I then moved the new iWork apps to this folder. I have icons for two versions of Pages & Numbers (I rarely use Keynote) in my Dock. Even with two versions of Pages running, double-clicking an existing file opens in Pages 4.3.