How do I arrange tables on a page in numbers?

Hi acgilner & other contributors,

Here is my Custom "Page Layout" Template in Numbers, painstakingly 😟 constructed following this User Tip:

Print Layout Guide for Numbers 3 on Mac

(It also applies to Numbers 4)

Once you have created this, Save as Template and it will be yours to modify.

Here is a new document from the Custom Template (58% Zoom):

Note the orange Alignment Guides top and left.

Note the black rectangle showing the right and bottom margins.

Add whatever you want within that rectangle.

Here is Menu > File Print... to show Print Preview:

Click on "Done" (bottom right) to return to Document (edit) view.

With objects added within the rectangle in the main (editable) document,

go back to Print Preview:

One page.

Tested in Numbers 3 and 4 with paper size A4 and Portrait orientation. Easily adapted to other paper sizes and Landscape orientation. Just ask 😎.

Regards,

Ian.

Hi Les,

• Click on any cell of one of your tables to activate it and show the row and column reference tabs.
• With the tabs (and the bullseye) exposed, you can now click on the bullseye to switch your selection from one cell to the table itself.
• Press command-A (Select all) to add the other tables on this sheet to the selection.
• Go Arrange > Distribute Objects > Vertically.

OR

• Click on an empty part of the canvas above or below the tables, and drag a selection rectangle to touch all four tables.
  As the rectangle touches each table it will be added to the selection.
• With all selected, Go Arrange > Distribute Objects > Vertically.

You may also want to take a second trip to the Arrange menu to align the tables to the left or right.

"The earlier answer that this is not good design, per Apple, is not acceptable answer."

Acceptable or not, sometimes it's the only available answer on a user to user forum. The next step then is to go to the application menu (in Numbers, the Numbers menu), choose Provide applicationname Feedback nd send your request for a change or bug report directly to Apple.

The Provide Feedback item is part of the application menu for all current Apple software.

Regards,

Barry

Numbers will not allow me to select more than 2 tables. I have four tables arranged vertically on the page (sheet for the benefit of the person who needs to hear that terminology). I would like to distribute the space between them evenly. The program will not do this for me; it will not let me select all four tables and then distribute evenly. The earlier answer that this is not good design, per Apple, is not acceptable answer.

I STILL can't get my tables to print one per page without a ridiculous amount of work. I have 52 tables, one for each week with my nanny's hours to calculate her page. I've used this same format for several years. It used to be fine, but after some update along the way messed it up. Every time I try to print newly entered data I have to jigger things around to get the tables to print one per page. Now I've printed these before, I just deleted all the data at the beginning of the year, but yet it still doesn't work. And sometimes even that tables filled in earlier in the year, Ihaven't moved anything or changed size but now they're off the page. What gives?

Hi ac,

A possible solution is to use only two tables: one large "Data" table on which to record the data for the full year the data, the second, smaller "report" table to gather the data for a specified week, and be printed. The second table could be placed on a separate Sheet, and would require alignment to the 'page' only once.

Regards,

Barry

Hi...

what do you mean with "Number doesn't have pages"??

it has pages on my opinion.... or maybe are called differently....

The + button right under the toll bar (on the left corner) does add a new page (or Tab, or table....)

isn't it?

Marco

Hi Marco,

"Pages" are not defined in Numbers until you enter the Print Setup mode or are actuallly printing the document to paper or to a PDF file. When you are in editing mode, a Pages document consists on one or more Sheets, and each Sheet may require one or more physical pages when printed.

Each sheet of a Number document may contain one or more Tables (or no tables at all) plus other objects such as images, shapes, text boxes or charts.

Each table on that sheet may contain one to several thousand cells, arranged in columns and rows.

Each cell in a table may containe entered data or data created by a formula in the cell.

The "+" button you refer to adds a Sheet to the document.

The Sheet is attached to a Tab, displayed at the top of the document window.

The Tab contains the name of the Sheet, and is used to select which sheet to bring to the front and make active.

Each Sheet, when created contains one Table, initially named Table 1. Other Tables (and other objects) may be added to the Sheet.

Regards,

Barry

If you look at the Apple-designed templates you will see that most have only one or two tables per sheet (by "pages" do you mean sheet? Numbers doesn't have pages). From your description it's hard to visualize what you have. But it does sound as if you may want to rethink how your document is designed.

SG

That is an unfortunate answer. My use of the tool is limited by the imagination of the Apple employees who built the examples? Surely it isn't too much to ask that the design elements on a sheet be arrangeable without overlap, so that one can SEE THEM?!

in my case it seems a good design to have tables for upcoming trips and then to archive them somehow. a separate sheet for each trip is clearly a poor design. Moving the tables to something other than numbers is unnecessarily cumbersome.

Two obvious solutions are to switch to Excel or to switch back to the previous version of numbers, both of which would support this workflow.

A Well designed tool does not tie the users hands like this. Is Numbers really incapable of doing an automatic layout of a sheet?

We're fellow users. You can give feedback to Apple via your menu Numbers > Provide Numbers Feedback.

SG

James,

Have you experimented with the Arrange > Distribute Objects menu selections? They won't do automatic layout, but they will greatly simplify making the tables uniformly spaced.

Basically, you set the positions of the first and last tables, select all the tables, and let the Distribute functions do the tedious part.

Jerry

That was sorta like what I wanted! Thanks!

I didn't know you had to place the first and last. I though I could just select all and then say "arrange".

Hi Barry....

that's what i thought... i was calling Pages what in reality are Sheets....

Sorry for that!

KR

Not an uncommon error.

It does help to use 'proper' Numbers vocabulary, though, as an aid to ensure both engaged in the conversation are talking about the same thing.

Regards,

Barry

When you are in editing mode, a Pages document consists on one or more Sheets, and each Sheet may require one or more physical pages when printed.

Hi Barry,

Too many Pages to think about!🙂

SG