*** equals sign insert math equation

Paulman! wrote:

While this did help, how do i get it to not do that from the start. I have hundreds of these things to do and it makes zero sense for me to do this each flipping time I need to use the = sign at the beginning of the chart.

Why would this be the default function?

Another method that might work for you -- instead of starting with the = sign, start with a space and then the equal sign. That tells Pages that you are entering text rather than a formula. Depending on how what you are doing needs to look, the space at the beginning may not be noticeable.

You can select all of the cells in the table and then go to the View menu and select Format (if the sidebar is not already displayed) and in the Format sidebar click Cell and then change "Data Format" to Text.

When you insert a Table into Pages, that is a spreadsheet.

There isn't much point in debating the issue here (not saying you can't, just that it won't change anything) as we are just other users. If you want to make the point to Apple, the following link is a good place: http://www.apple.com/feedback/pages.html

The default behavior in MS Excel for decades has been to pop a formula dialog when entering an '=' sign in a cell. This is exactly how StarOffice, OpenOffice, and LibreOffice genealogy have worked when entering an '=' sign in their spreadsheet cells. So has Apple's Numbers spreadsheet. As upset as you may be about this, if Apple had made it work your way, the complaints about breaking a defacto standard would have been far more vocal.

As has been mentioned, change your cell or cell range to text and enter "=" normally without formula intervention. This has entirely nothing to do with any why Apple question. It is an industry standard behavior for spreadsheets that expect to be compatible to some extent with MS Excel.

Except that horrible as they may be, Word and Excel dominate the corporate world where most individuals that seek and receive employment — are required to use them. If Apple was uninterested in any form of cross-platform compatibility, then they could have remained at AppleWorks, and completely skipped Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.

If you find a spreadsheet application that runs on the Mac, and allows you to enter an '=' symbol in any cell data format other than text — and does not pop a formula editor — update your post here.

VikingOSX -- Does the latest version of Pages still lack some really basic capabilities for more serious academic and business use that Word users are accustomed to, like linked text boxes, auto capitalization, and 2-up display?

Pages is foremost, a word processing application that allows you to insert table objects whose cells obey industry standard spreadsheet cell behavior. Thus, if you want to suppress a formula dialog when entering an '=' key in a table cell, that cell data format must first be set to text. Whether you like it or not, whether it makes sense or not, those are the constraints — unless you can live with Foxfifths suggestion of entering a space before the '='.

Tom,

Everything that you mentioned is still missing from Pages v5.6.