I was a heavy Excel user and am very confused by Numbers. If I have five columns and I want a title over those five columns, how do I center a title over just those five columns?
MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)
Hi Laura,
With 5 columns it is going to be easy.
Your title is entered into the center column. In the text pane under format use center alignment and uncheck "Wrap text in cell". If you want, in the cell pane you could remove the visual borders between the cells.
Some people are tempted to merge cells in similar situations. Don't do it! Numbers finds mysterious ways to complain about them.
quinn
Hi Laura,
Following on from quinn's advice:
Some people are tempted to merge cells in similar situations. Don't do it! Numbers finds mysterious ways to complain about them.
Instead of merging cells, try a text box on top of your table. Set the Fill colour to match the row, and set Border to No Border:
Regards,
Ian.
I'm not sure this is what I'm after. If I have 10 columns, all different widths, how will I know what cell to type my title? In excel you type the title in Column A, highlight all the cells in the same row you want the title centered over and then click center. That doesn't work here. Any other suggestions?
IF there are A thru D Columms and you want a title centers over A thru C, in the row you want the title, let's say it's Row 1...type the title in Row1 column A. Then highlight cells I'm row 1 but just the cells in A thru C and click the center alignment. ive used excel since it came out and it was pretty much always that way
Interesting. I have used Excel for years, too. I have never seen that and it does not appear to work in the version I have (Excel for Mac 2011) or the version my wife uses on her PC (Excel 2013), it just centers it in column A (while also setting the cells in columns B & C to be center aligned).
If I select the three cells then hit the "merge" button (not the center alignment button), it will center it over the selected columns. That is if the merge button is set to "merge and center".
Merge the cells then use centered text in the merged cell. That is how you would do it in Excel, too, right?
Hi Laura,
Trial and error. You could put a border around the 5 cells but centering will be a manual task.
quinn
So we can't have sections of a table with titles centered over them? What a terrible omission. 😟
It's not necessary to merge cells in Excel. I still can't figure it out in Numbers but I sent the spreadsheet as it is. Oh well. There are worse things lol. Thank you for trying to help me. :-)
What do you do in Excel? I've never seen it done except by merging cells or by padding the text with spaces until it "looks good" (which can also be done in Numbers)
Hmm welk I havent used it in ten years. its simething simple though. Unlike typing on my iPhone Right now LOL.
How do I center a title over selected columns?
