distribute a spreadsheet

Question

distribute a spreadsheet

Hi Folks,

I have created a spreadsheet to help people formulate recipes for soap making in Numbers 3. I would like to share this with the wider soaping community, for free, probably through a forum. I also have a modest web site that I can make the file available through. My question is how to do this so that anyone with access to any version of Numbers can use it if they please.

I've had a good look around and searching for something like "share numbers spreadsheet" produces lots of links as to how to collaborate on a file but not how to distribute one. Perhaps I'm drawing a false distinction but I'm hoping someone here can clarify this for me?

So to be clear, I'm looking for the best way to distribute/share a Numbers 3 spreadsheet file for users of:

a Mac
an iPhone
an iPad
a Windows computer in a web browser
any other way to use Numbers that you can think of.

in a way that allows them to have their own copy and not be collaborating with me.

As always, any help and all advice gratefully accepted. :-) Thanks in advance.

Cheers,

Grant

MacBook Pro (15-inch 2.4/2.2 GHz), OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on May 4, 2016 3:09 AM

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Answer 1

SGIII

Level 8

35,264 points

May 4, 2016 8:13 AM in response to Grant Crosthwaite

Have you considered this?

You can set it to 'View Only' in the next step so that they can't make changes to your copy.

Anybody with a modern browser will be able to view the document. No need for them to have an iCloud account.

Those with a Mac will be able to download a copy (via the 'Tool' icon in Numbers for iCloud) and open it in their Numbers app if they so wish.

SG

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Answer 2

May 4, 2016 2:13 PM in response to SGIII

Thanks SG,

That certainly looks like at least a partial solution. Ideally everyone will end up with their own copy - as the Mac owners would. The spreadsheet is a tool where users would have to change values to make it useful so making it view only won't work.

There are are a few freely available tools like this around for Excel which is fine if you own Excel. As Apple have made Numbers free for many people I thought this might free them from the need to buy Excel. I have shared the file from my web site but that doesn't make it easy enough to get onto an iOS device (in my opinion). Perhaps some other cloud service like DropBox might be worth investigating. I think there sharing links expire after a while? I'd have to investigate.

Many any thanks for your advice.

Cheers,

Grant

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Answer 3

SGIII

Level 8

35,264 points

May 4, 2016 4:11 PM in response to Grant Crosthwaite

Sharing via iCloud is, I think, dead simple for Macs. But if you want each person to have an individual copy (i.e. don't want any sort of collaboration and don't need people to be able to see the document via the browser because they already will have the Numbers app) then Dropbox may be a good choice.

By default my Dropbox links do not expire. I just tested pasting a 'Public Link' from Dropbox into an email and opening that on an iPad. Mobile Safari displays the document and upper left gives the choice to 'Open in...' which, when tapped, lists 'Copy to Numbers' as one of the options.

On the Mac clicking the link in the email immediately downloads the Numbers document. So it appears that distributing via Dropbox would be efficient for Mac users.

Dropbox doesn't solve your problem for PC users, though. Depending on the structure of your Numbers document, exporting to Excel may provide acceptable results for those on a machine that can't run Numbers.

SG

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Answer 4

Yellowbox

Level 7

20,347 points

May 4, 2016 9:17 PM in response to Grant Crosthwaite

Hi Grant,

When exporting from Numbers to Excel, each object (Table, Text Box,Shape) is placed on its own Excel Sheet. Links between Sheets will work, but it will have a very different look and feel. You might consider editing the exported document in Excel to tidy it up before you place it on Dropbox.

Regards,

Ian.

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Answer 5

May 4, 2016 10:20 PM in response to Yellowbox

Thanks Yellowbox,

I'm really trying to avoid any use of Excel. The purpose of the exercise is to provide an alternative to the existing Excel tools. I've tried the export function on a small sub set of the whole spreadsheet and it looked awful. One of the great things about Numbers is the ability to have separate tables on the same sheet. You are, of course, quite right the export function does away with this singular advantage.

I like numbers and I'm sure for many things it provides ease of use but this doesn't seem simpler to me. Perhaps it requires s change in my mindset but it would also require a lot of other people to do the same.

I'll try the Dropbox solution for now and see how people respond. Thanks again.

Cheers,

Grant

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Answer 6

Barry

Level 9

59,861 points

May 4, 2016 11:05 PM in response to Grant Crosthwaite

"I'm really trying to avoid any use of Excel."

Hi Grant,

That's difficult to do if you want Windows users to be able to open your spreadsheet. Numbers is not available for Windows, and to my knowledge, there's no Windows application that will open a Numbers document.

Two of the open source office applications, Apache OpenOffice and LibreOffice, have versions for OS X, Windows and Linux. Exporting your Numbers spreadsheet to MS Excel format, opening and revising it in one of those, then resaving it in MS Excel format could provide a workable version for those Windows users who don't want to use Excel, and can't open the .numbers file. The links will take you to the home pages of the two applications. Both are free to download and use, although you may be asked for a donation to assist with future development of the application.

Regards,

Barry

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Answer 7

May 5, 2016 2:04 AM in response to Barry

Hi Barry,

Thanks for the info on the freeware Office programs. As I understand it Numbers works in the browser on Windows computers. The work involved in exporting to these other programs would not be worthwhile for me. I'm really trying to see whether Numbers is useful enough to be an alternative (a usually free alternative) to the ubiquitous Excel. What I have attempted to produce pretty much replicates the functionality of other free to use spreadsheets produced many moons ago for Excel.

There may be little interest from others as Excel seems to be everywhere but making this has allowed me to learn something of the limitations of Numbers and iCloud. On the other hand, it may be something that will be useful to others if only I can get-it-out-there. :-)

Thanks to you and the others that have pitched in here. I love that the Mac community is so helpful. I'm going to try dropbox as a distributuion method for a while and see where it takes me.

Cheers,

Grant

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Answer 8

Yellowbox

Level 7

20,347 points

May 5, 2016 4:56 AM in response to Grant Crosthwaite

Hi Grant,

Good to see that you are distributing a Numbers document.

When you get the Numbers document on Dropbox (or whatever) please post a link in this thread so that we can test the download... and learn something about soap making 🙂.

Grant wrote:

My question is how to do this so that anyone with access to any version of Numbers can use it if they please.

From Numbers 3.x you can do Menu > File > Export To > Numbers '09 to make that document available to users of the previous version of Numbers (Numbers 4, AKA Numbers '09).

Users with earlier versions of Numbers (for example, Numbers '08) may not be able to open it.

Good luck!

Ian.

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Answer 9

May 5, 2016 4:59 AM in response to Yellowbox

As you wish. :-)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dl12bvsicanvu9g/Grants%20Soap%20Designer%20%26%20Calcu lator.numbers?dl=0

Please let me know if there are any issues (with the file). The soap making might take a little longer to know the results. :-)

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Answer 10

Yellowbox

Level 7

20,347 points

May 28, 2016 7:21 AM in response to Grant Crosthwaite

Hi Grant,

The download from Dropbox worked. Numbers 3.6.1 opened the document. After unlocking the tables on the Calculations Sheet (good idea to lock calculations 😉) I now see (kind of) how to make soap 🙂.

At first glance, is see no problems with Exporting this to Numbers '09 to make it available to a wider audience (Numbers 3 can open Numbers '09 documents).

Good work!

Ian.

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