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Q: In the new Numbers, where did autofill drop down menus go and how do I get them back?

In the new Numbers, where did autofill drop down menus go and how do I get them back?

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9), Numbers Question?

Posted on Oct 27, 2013 10:13 AM

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Q: In the new Numbers, where did autofill drop down menus go and how do I get them back?

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  • by Jerrold Green1,

    Jerrold Green1 Jerrold Green1 Oct 27, 2013 6:19 PM in response to bbmark
    Level 7 (30,001 points)
    Oct 27, 2013 6:19 PM in response to bbmark

    The Autocompletion List went away in Numbers 3.0. To get it back, use Numbers 2.3.

     

    Jerry

  • by SGIII,

    SGIII SGIII Oct 27, 2013 6:32 PM in response to Jerrold Green1
    Level 6 (10,720 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 27, 2013 6:32 PM in response to Jerrold Green1

    But there's autocompletion to the whole dictionary! Type jerr in a cell and hit  option-escape.

    Screen Shot 2013-10-27 at 9.24.01 PM.png

     

    Not sure how this could help with spreadsheet work, but just thought I'd point out that it's there.

     

    If they brought back spacebar to activate pop-up that would be a tolerable substitute for me because pop-up is a very efficient way to do things in iOS.

     

    SG

  • by Yellowbox,

    Yellowbox Yellowbox Oct 27, 2013 6:32 PM in response to bbmark
    Level 6 (10,495 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 27, 2013 6:32 PM in response to bbmark

    Hi Mark,

     

    Autofill by dragging the yellow dot (doesn't show in this screen shot, hover until you see it).

     

    Screen Shot 2013-10-28 at 12.28.32 pm.png   Screen Shot 2013-10-28 at 12.29.19 pm.png

     

    Regards,

    Ian.

  • by Jerrold Green1,

    Jerrold Green1 Jerrold Green1 Oct 27, 2013 6:42 PM in response to SGIII
    Level 7 (30,001 points)
    Oct 27, 2013 6:42 PM in response to SGIII

    Wow, that could be overwhelming. The nice thing about the Autocompletion list is that it was limited to what was in the same column.

     

    Jerry

  • by SGIII,

    SGIII SGIII Oct 27, 2013 6:56 PM in response to Jerrold Green1
    Level 6 (10,720 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 27, 2013 6:56 PM in response to Jerrold Green1

    Yes, I know what you mean. But just so you know it's there and has all sorts of words in its dictionary. Doesn't seem to be a way to limit the words it looks up to a useful subset.  Would probably have to mess around in the application package or the Library...

     

    SG

  • by JammyO,

    JammyO JammyO Oct 30, 2013 7:36 AM in response to Jerrold Green1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 30, 2013 7:36 AM in response to Jerrold Green1

    I have a Numbers spreadsheet that I've used every day for years with thousands of entries. For most of the new entries, only one or two variables change in each new row, while the rest of the cells in the row contain previously entered information (eg. category information such as "Food"). Now, with the 3.0 upgrade, I will have to enter in full each cell of the entire entry, instead of typing one letter and having the program fill in the remainder of the cell for me.  The removal of "autocompletion" is significant, and negatively affects my use of the software.  Although the suggestion to revert to version 2.3 no doubt is an option, I think that one version of any software package should be enough for any user.

  • by Jerrold Green1,

    Jerrold Green1 Jerrold Green1 Oct 30, 2013 7:37 AM in response to JammyO
    Level 7 (30,001 points)
    Oct 30, 2013 7:37 AM in response to JammyO

    Tell Apple at Numbers > Provide Numbers Feedback.

     

    Jerry

  • by Yellowbox,

    Yellowbox Yellowbox Oct 30, 2013 8:11 AM in response to JammyO
    Level 6 (10,495 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 30, 2013 8:11 AM in response to JammyO

    Hi Jammy0,

     

    Try this. Two tables in Numbers 3.0

    Screen Shot 2013-10-31 at 2.06.37 am.png

    In the Enter table, type the first letter of your item in any cell in column A.

     

    It will search in the Lookup table for a match and return the value from the Lookup table, Column B.

     

    Formula in cell B2 of the Enter table is:

     

    =VLOOKUP(A2,Lookup::A:B,2,0)

     

    Then Fill Down in column B of Enter table.

     

    Good enough to work around the loss of autocompletion?

     

    Regards,

    Ian.

  • by SGIII,

    SGIII SGIII Oct 30, 2013 8:13 AM in response to JammyO
    Level 6 (10,720 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 30, 2013 8:13 AM in response to JammyO

    And, although unfortunately there's no keyboard shortcut for it yet (big oversight!), using a pop-up can work well to input category names you don't want to type each time. Looking at this on the bright side, it keeps your data cleaner. Less chance of typos creeping in.

     

    SG

  • by pokecheck,Solvedanswer

    pokecheck pokecheck Oct 31, 2013 9:05 AM in response to bbmark
    Level 1 (85 points)
    Oct 31, 2013 9:05 AM in response to bbmark

    yeah -  this was a huge issue for me this morning - like "i need autofill" panic

     

    this new app is a different app - its not an update of iwork09

     

    so you can  (i just did this - so it worked for me) -  export from the new numbers -> to a numbers 09 file -   then highlight the new file / command+i to get the info pallet on the file...  then change "open with" to the old number app... then it will open in 09 and you get your autofill back

     

    -e

  • by pokecheck,

    pokecheck pokecheck Oct 31, 2013 9:20 AM in response to pokecheck
    Level 1 (85 points)
    Oct 31, 2013 9:20 AM in response to pokecheck

    apple always tell you "whats new" with the new apps

     

    after this - and the lack of "Labels" in Mavericks - i think apple needs to start telling us "whats missing" - because THATS more important to people that use these machines for work

  • by Smirhcfa,

    Smirhcfa Smirhcfa Oct 31, 2013 10:04 AM in response to bbmark
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Oct 31, 2013 10:04 AM in response to bbmark

    After trying to figure this out for an hour or so this morning, I came across something somewhat helpful - not as good as what we had, but still...

     

    Click on your column header and then go over to the tool palette in the right and click on "cell." You can then use the drop down menu to change data format to "pop up menu." It isn't a full-on autocomplete, but it will give you a pop-up menu to choose from the other values in the column. For what I need it for, this is far more usable than typing in everything, as I only need to choose from 15-20 different values. Anyway, hopefully that helps a bit.

  • by SGIII,

    SGIII SGIII Oct 31, 2013 10:31 AM in response to Smirhcfa
    Level 6 (10,720 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 31, 2013 10:31 AM in response to Smirhcfa

    Hi Smirhcfa,

     

    I find pop-ups useful too. They're good for situations when you have a few recurring values that you enter in different rows in the same column. For me they are even better than auto-completion in the sense that typing errors are less likely to creep in by mistake. Pop-ups work really well on a touch interface (iPad, iPhone) where the less typing you do (even the first letter of a word) the better. On the Mac the desigers failed to include a keyboard shortcut for pop-ups in 3.0 (in the old Numbers you can call up the pop-up by hitting the space bar.)  I hope you give them feedback if you're interested in them adding that:

     

    provide-feedback.png

     

    SG

  • by bbmark,

    bbmark bbmark Nov 2, 2013 2:26 PM in response to pokecheck
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 2, 2013 2:26 PM in response to pokecheck

    Thanks much. This worked for me and it was pretty easy even though I had never exported to a different type of file before other than maybe MS Word to pdf. Sad, though when you think about it...how to make the new improved program work...export for file to the old version. Thanks again.

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