I am moving away from MS products to Apple iMac. i want to got to iWork? for my docs and excel sheets. if i download iWork's can i merge my excel on to these sheets? or do i start fresh?
Thanks for the input.
iMac
Hi newguy,
Numbers will open excel files no problem. There are some differences in the two programs in basic approaches. In Numbers we can have many small tables on a canvas rather than Excel's single to a sheet.
There are some functions (arrays, for one) that will not translate.
If you are on a new mac, Numbers is free and it will cost you nothing to give it a spin. If you like wht you see with a few tweaks then save it as a Numbers file and move forward. If there are issues check back here. We have a number of posters that are familiar with both programs.
quinn
Numbers can open many Excel documents and they will "just work." However, there are some formulas and some design elements that may require reworking in Numbers. And if you are dealing with large datasets you may find Excel fits your needs better.
And remember, this isn't an either-or choice. On the Mac (and indeed on iOS devices too) you can run both Numbers and Excel.
SG
Hello newguy,
I also want to transition to numbers from excel. What I am finding is some of the formulas that work in excel to not transfer or work in Numbers. I'm working with this community to try to resolve some of the issues but still have not resolved them all. I'm not an expert in either excel or numbers so the formulas are occasionally a mystery to me.
Not much help in terms of solving your problem but just letting you know the transition may not be seamless.
In a word, don't. The iWork apps are not clones of Microsoft Office apps.
The current versions (Pages 5 & Numbers 3) are not even close to the functionality of previous versions of iWork. Even Pages 1 (iWork '05) & Numbers 1 (iWork '08) had a lot more features.
You don't need to use Microsoft Office. You can use the very capable & free LibreOffice. LibreOffice will open & save in the native MS formats.
kpcbloom wrote:
What I am finding is some of the formulas that work in excel to not transfer or work in Numbers. I'm working with this community to try to resolve some of the issues but still have not resolved them all.
Numbers has a large subset of the formulas used in Excel. Their usage is virtually identical to Excel. So you can search for Excel solutions to a problem and often can use themin Numbers too. The formulas that Numbers does not support include most so-called "array formulas." Most Excel users don't use those anyway. Another difference is in treatment of time and dates And duration. Otherwise it's pretty much identical.
As for the current version of Numbers lacking a lot of the capabilies of the previous version released 8 years ago, that's no longer true For Numbers (though it may be for Pages). The new version, Numbers 3, does many things better than the old one, including seamless cross-platform sync so you can use a document wherever you are. The old version, and open-source apps like LibreOffice, can't do that.
I suggest getting to know Numbers better by studying the templates at File > New. Numbers is not the best tool for analyzing large datasets or printing to paper heavily formatted documents. But it provides a powerful, efficient and pleasant environment to tackle many personal and small business problems.
SG
I want to move to iWork will my windows excel move onto easy??
