how to set page margins in Numbers 3

c,

Margin setting ability was lost in translation to Numbers 3.0.

Jerry

Hi caforestfire,

There is no direct equivalent to page margins in Numbers 3.0. It's more oriented toward sharing on the web and on iPad screens than toward traditional printing.

However, there are ways to achieve the effect of margins. The idea is to first position your content (tables, charts, etc) on the canvas of a sheet, using rulers and guides if you want (you can drag the rulers onto the canvas to help in placement):

Then you File>Print and in Print Preview fiddle with the slider until you get the white space you want around your content:

Then click Print.

For many purposes it works quite well. It's just a different approach from what we're used to in Excel, and the old Numbers 2.3.

SG

When dumbing down software becomes really dumb... The organizations I work with will now probably have to abandon Numbers, which they (and I) once saw as an actual alternative to Excel.

The trick with the print layout is not working when you want less margin. You can only create more white around your print, but you can't lower the rather wide default margin to use the full surface of a sheet of paper. Like you could did with Numbers 2.x where a margin of 1 cm was enough for me on my printed tables.

My printer even supports bourderless printing, so in theory I want te be able to set a margin of 0 cm, so I can glue several sheets togeter to get a realy big sheet. I relularly print a table of 3 pages wide and tape them together.

EDIT: Now I see that I even can't access the printer specific features anymore. Like setting the papertray, manual feed etc. It is all realy bad and probably means that I must revert to Numbers 2. And probably to Excell when Number 2 starts getting to old.

And it's really insane to be forced to reduce the overall output size in order to affect the margin. That obviously also makes the text smaller and 10 points is no longer 10 points. It's like the desktop publishing revolution - that Apple was a huge part of - never happened.

Can't say I understand the direction the iWork apps has taken. First, Apple introduces Keynote and it's super cool. Pages and Numbers follows and they keep improving the suite somewhat during a couple of releases, but clearly Apple has lost interest in it. So nothing happens for ages, and then suddenly - Boom! - a big step in a inexplicable direction. Now, they say they'll be adding features back in the coming months, but clearly Apple must have the resources to make these apps ready at launch?

Jan,

I think what is lacking at Apple is the proper vision for "prodictivity apps". You could help by Providing Feedback in the Numbers menu and by writing an App Review in the Mac App Store.

Jerry

Jan,

I agree with you on the insanity of not being able to set narrower margins, and hope they fix that. But I'm not sure Apple doesn't have good vision about productivity apps.

Paper printout and desktop publishing are still important to many users, but clearly aren't cutting edge any more. Collaboration and display and sharing on multiple platforms and devices and on the web is Apple's vision, I would guess, about where things are headed with productivity software.

Their vision may turn out to be right because, if done effectively, these new productivity things can save people a lot of time and money, just as desktop publishing did way back when. But it's almost impossible to make those new things work right and still keep all the traditional features we all know and love. When you set out on a space ship you've got to leave some baggage behind. The issue is what baggage to leave behind. That's a tough decision, because one person's "essential feature" is another person's "bloat" and the mix of people using the software can change dramatically over time, especially if giving it away free on all platforms brings in lots of new users.

SG

Vision or not, if Apple expects to ever make a dent in the huge number of Excel users, they have to do a better job with Numbers. Why would anyone assume we didn't care what our spreadsheets look like or what we can fit on one page? I have my first iMac and wish I would have researched going from Excel to Numbers. Apple was known for their publishing software & I assumed formating would be good in Numbers. This shortcoming with Numbers formating is a shock. I'll check out Libre Office to see if they do a better job.

Hank,

Let us know how you make out. I've tried LibreOffice and I'd be surprised if you find their layout tools any better than these.

Sorry you came to the iMac at this turning point in Apple software. Layout tools are better in Pages, so if you wanted to, you could edit your table in Numbers where the editing tools are better and publish it in Pages where the layout tools are better (but not a lot better). Pages lost its Layout Lines and Vertical Ruler in the Upgrade, but at least you can still edit in Print View mode.

Jerry

SGIII mentioned the "baggage on the spaceship". Whislt I agree with the thinking, its a pity that Apple didn't let the user be the captain of the ship, and therefore decide which "Baggage" to use or discard.

Its like the feature to bold the text. You either use it or ignore it.

Margins should be the same, thus pleasing the Paper Printout user and the Desktop Publishing user.

Simon

You are right of course that taking out new directions calls for leaving old paths, replacing old tools with new ones. And if Apple wants to improve online document creation and sharing, that's all very fine.

It's a shame then that the collaborative possibilities of iWork, currenty in open beta, are so limited (Want to collaborate on a Numbers document with an iPad user, for instance? Not possible.). And I'm not sure how killing very basic features - like margin settings - helps us reach new ground. I for one almost never print out spreadsheets on paper. But I do create and share a lot of pdf:s, and I want them to look good. I want control, not "good enough" (heck, Microsoft used to be about "good enough").

Whenever Apple dumb down an app for the sake of parity with iOS versions, they are basically hammering the message that iPads and iPhones are less powerful than a computer. Developing easy and elegant ways to perform certain tasks with a touch interface and limited screen estate is hard. Most of the time Apple not only succeeds, they shine. But just because they sometimes can't nail it, should that mean that they must kill the same feature in the desktop version?

Like you say, a lot of things we use computers for are rather mundane and far from cutting edge, and it's pretty clear what Apple wants to be perceived as. But just because something isn't cool doesn't mean it isn't useful, or even requisite.

Here's something: I had a rather complex document (lots of sheets, each with specific margin settings) converted to Numbers 3.0. As we now know, Numbers 3.0 doesn't show those settings and there's no meaningful way to edit them. But, today I converted that same document back to the Numbers 2 ('09)-format and opened it in the previous version. I expected the page margins to be messed up, but all the settings were as originally set.

If you're optimistic, that can be interpreted as Apple only temporarily has removed this feature and will bring it back.