JeffW
Level 1 (125 points)

Q: Numbers autofill of lists - where did it go???

Hi:

 

I recently updated to the brand new version of Numbers (3.0, the one that only runs on 10.0 Mavericks), and I seem to have lost at least one feature.

 

I have a spreadsheet which is a running list I update every few days. When I enter the new data in a new row, Numbers used to (in the previous versions) autofull suggestions based on values in the rows above in that same column. This was very handy as to of the columns have only a few typical values (with occasional variation), and saved me lots of typing and typos.

 

I just opened the spreadsheet in the new Numbers, and entered a row of data....and NO autofill!

 

Am I missing something or did Apple remove this incredibly convenient feature?

 

Any help, pointers or suggestions are much appreciated!

 

Thanks,

 

Jeff

 

OS/X 10.9 (Mavericks), Numbers 3.0, iMac

Posted on Nov 19, 2013 11:11 AM

by Wayne Contello,Solvedanswer
Wayne Contello Wayne Contello
Level 6 (19,416 points)
iWork
A:

Jeff,

 

The text suggestion feature from previous cells in the same column was dropped.  Apple has a list of things to add back in which you can read here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6049?

 

you can also voice your opinion to Apple using the menu item "Number > Provide Numbers Feedback"

Posted on Nov 19, 2013 11:22 AM

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JeffW

Q: Numbers autofill of lists - where did it go???

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  • by Wayne Contello,Solvedanswer

    Wayne Contello Wayne Contello Nov 19, 2013 11:22 AM in response to JeffW
    Level 6 (19,416 points)
    iWork
    Nov 19, 2013 11:22 AM in response to JeffW

    Jeff,

     

    The text suggestion feature from previous cells in the same column was dropped.  Apple has a list of things to add back in which you can read here:

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6049?

     

    you can also voice your opinion to Apple using the menu item "Number > Provide Numbers Feedback"

  • by SGIII,

    SGIII SGIII Nov 19, 2013 11:53 AM in response to JeffW
    Level 6 (10,796 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 19, 2013 11:53 AM in response to JeffW

    Any help, pointers or suggestions are much appreciated!

     

     

    Hi Jeff,

     

    Apple has already announced they will reinstate "autocomplete text in cells" so providing feedback on it probably isn't necessary.  Until Apple reintroduces it sometime within the next six months (and even after it is brought back) you should consider formatting the cells in the column as Pop-Up Menu if you frequently enter repeating values in a column and don't want to type the same text over and over again.

     

    In many situations, particularly if you are worried about typos, Pop-Up Menu has clear advantages over "autocomplete" anyway.  It is much enhanced over what it was in Numbers 2.3, and is very easy to set up:

     

    pop-up-choose-format.png

     

    Select the whole column before formatting as Pop-Up Menu and your existing values in that column will pre-populate a menu automatically:

     

     

    pop-up-format-column.png

     

     

    Then you can remove the values you don't want in the list, such as the column header (and possibly some previous spelling errors too!):

     

    pop-up-remove-item.png

     

     

    And after this easy one-time setup all you have to do thereafter is to choose from the pop-up list when you add rows:

    pop-up-choose.png

     

     

    See this post for more details on how this handy feature has been enhanced in Numbers 3.0.

     

    In Numbers 3.0 there is no keyboard shortcut to activate the menu such as hitting the spacebar in the old Numbers (hope they'll add one in upcoming versions) but the Pop-Up Menu approach has some advantages over autocompletion: no spelling errors or lack of capitalization when there should be capitalization, etc.

     

    And should you ever want to take your Numbers with you, in a touch interface pop-ups are much more efficient than typing the first few letters of items. You can scroll with ease through a list of dozens of items to make a pick.

     

    See this thread for this and other workarounds for Numbers 3.0.

     

    SG

  • by JeffW,

    JeffW JeffW Nov 19, 2013 12:05 PM in response to JeffW
    Level 1 (125 points)
    Nov 19, 2013 12:05 PM in response to JeffW

    Thanks for pointing me to the list of removed features and those to be "added back" - I looked on the iWork pages on Apple's site and could not find this.

     

    I'm shocked that such valuable and widely used feature was intentionally removed. For me, this renders the product essentially unuseable.

     

    It's stunning that they released a new product that is harder to use, looks terrible and has features removed. Typically new releases make the product better, not worse. Seems Apple has a lot to learn about software.

     

    (one note, SGill: drop-down lists will not work. As I noted, many of the values are the same, but not exclusively, making drop-downs less valuable than straight typing)

     

    Does anyone know how to roll back to the previous version? (and make sure that the spreadsheet I opened in the new version will open in the old version, and that the new version on the iPad can handle working with the old version on the Mac)?

     

    Thinking this is not possible, but hoping....

     

    THanks!

  • by SGIII,

    SGIII SGIII Nov 19, 2013 12:49 PM in response to JeffW
    Level 6 (10,796 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 19, 2013 12:49 PM in response to JeffW

    Hi Jeff,

     

    Numbers 2.3 is still on your Mac, in a subfolder within Applications called iWork '09 or similar.

     

    If you've edited any documents in Numbers 3 and want to take them back to Numbers 2.3, File> Export to ... >Numbers '09.

     

    If you want to use Numbers on the Mac with Numbers on the iPad, though, you need to use Numbers 3. They work really well together.

     

    And if you're using Numbers on the iPad you're definitely going to want want to go with Pop-Up Menus. As described in the linked threads, it's really easy to add new values to the menu when you've got something slightly different from the existing values.

     

    SG