If you use Microsoft Excel on your Mac, you can save the spreadsheets you create and open them in Numbers, Apple’s spreadsheet app. It’s a handy feature to use in case you can’t access.

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Download Free Mac Numbers Templates. Keep personal finance records for three checking and savings accounts, an IRA, six credit cards, two cash accounts and medical expenses. Just like Pages, Numbers can be purchased off the App Store for the low price of $19.99 or you can choose to get it pre-installed along with your brand shiny new Mac. And, just like Pages, it also supports iCloud so you can view your spreadsheets across all of your devices. The splash screen of Numbers, showing the iCloud integration.

Numbers is a spreadsheet application that benefits from tight integration with the other Apple productivity applications, Pages and Keynote. Numbers is available on OS X for Mac, iOS for the iPad and iPhone, and via web browsers.

This article provides 10 tips for Numbers, highlighting ideas and functions that will help boost your productivity, but some of the advice is also applicable to Pages and Keynote. For example, Pages and Keynote can create tables and charts similar to those created in Numbers; however, for extra control over your data, you should create tables and charts in Numbers and then copy them into Pages and Keynote as needed.

Tip 1: Think of Numbers as a freeform canvas

Numbers documents can contain multiple sheets, each of which can be used as a blank canvas on which to add tables and charts. You might have expected these features; however, users often overlook the ability to add media such as photos or video. For example, when documenting a school's science lab experiment, adding photos and video of the processes involved could make for a visually rich presentation.

Figure 1 shows an example of a father and son's efforts to research facts about World War II. The charts and tables in Numbers were copied and pasted into Pages and Keynote for class presentations. Notice the size of the spreadsheet in Numbers; it offers plenty of space for adding special features to the research documentation.

Figure 1. The spreadsheets in Numbers are vast. Much of the text here is set in 10 pt, and the selected photo measures 6 × 5 inches.

Other types of spreadsheets might include business fact-finding, vacation planning, and so on. By adding screen grabs of websites or photos of the products or places you're researching, you can use Numbers as a number-crunching pin-board.

Tip 2: Use multiple tables rather than a large single table

Numbers lets you add tables to a sheet with ease. Where appropriate, however, break up calculations into multiple tables to make navigating your spreadsheet easier (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Organize your data into multiple tables.

Using smaller tables also helps to isolate any math problems in complex calculations. These concepts are explored further in Lesson 10, 'Making Customized Calendars,' in Apple Pro Training Series: Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. The lesson also explains the syntax for creating advanced formulas, which can lead to spreadsheets that work as mini-applications. The example shown in Figure 2 is a photographer's price calculator for prints. The spreadsheet can be used to choose a variety of paper types, sizes, and qualities, quickly returning a price that the photographer can quote to her clients.

Tip 3: Label that table!

Apple Numbers For Macos 10.13

It's a good habit to rename tables and charts as you create them in Numbers. Suppose you create multiple tables, as suggested in Tip 2. If you don't rename them, you'll be confronted with the default references (Table 1, Table 2, Table 3, and so on) when you try to apply formulas.

In Figure 3, the table has been renamed Price Calculator. The Inspector shows that the Table Name option is enabled. If this option were deselected, the table would still be identified in the Formula Editor as Price Calculator, but the label on the sheet would disappear.

Figure 3. Labeling tables and charts descriptively is a best practice.

In the same vein, when the sheet tab is clicked. a menu appears, listing all the tables and charts on that sheet. Notice in Figure 4 that the tables are labeled as Price Calculator and Paper Prices. Having descriptive labels helps you to find and jump to the required table or chart more easily than with the default table names of Table 1, Table 2, and so forth.

Figure 4. Here the Sheet menu lists two tables: Price Calculator and Paper Prices.

Tip 4: Change data formats as needed

Numbers will try to guess which data format to use, depending on what you type into a cell. Often Numbers will guess correctly, but sometimes you'll want to set the data format manually (see Figure 5).

Figure 5. Numbers automatically chooses cell data formats, but sometimes you'll need to set the format manually.

The Numbers application's guesswork can be a great time saver, too. In Figure 6, I typed Monday into cell A1 and then dragged across the adjacent columns. Numbers automatically added the remaining days of the week.

Figure 6. The combination of Numbers' guesswork and autofill is a great time-saver for filling in days of the week, months of the year, dates, or number sequences.

To explore formatting in more detail, see Apple Pro Training Series: Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.

Tip 5: Use interactive data formats

Numbers has five interactive data formats: Checkbox, Star Rating, Slider, Stepper, and Pop-Up Menu. Often, one of these formats will be the ideal solution for data input. For example, use Pop-Up Menu to create a custom list of items from which users can select, or use Slider to quickly apply a number value in a range of your choosing.

The example in Figure 7 comes from Lesson 9, 'Making Interactive Spreadsheets,' in Apple Pro Training Series: Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. A pop-up menu is configured to show all the junior grading levels for a Kempo Ju-Jitsu club. The lead instructor only has to click a student's grade, and a custom pop-menu appears.

Figure 7. Creating pop-up menus speeds up data input.

Staying with the Ju-Jitsu club, Figure 8 shows a range of interactive data formats in a grading assessment table. Checkboxes are used for the first five assessment criteria, but for the training bouts Star Ratings have been set for qualitative assessment.

Figure 8. Use the interactive data formats to make data input intuitive and more accurate.

You can apply this idea to a wide range of assessment types, and not just in education or sports—perhaps in medical or engineering assessments, etc.

Tip 6: Learn how to change cell references

For users taking their first steps with spreadsheets, setting up calculations is a great achievement. The default reference settings work well in many cases, but changing the cell references unlocks a world of possibilities.

Earlier I mentioned Lesson 10 in the book. The lesson begins with an exercise to construct a multiplication table. For the math to work correctly, the cell references have to be changed from the default settings. In Figure 9, cell F4 calculates 5 × 4. To achieve this result, the references to row 1 and column A must be preserved, as shown in Figure 10. (If you work through Lesson 10, these concepts will be clearer.)

Figure 9. The formula in cell F4 shows that cells F1 and A4 are being referenced. Numbers' default referencing would show cells F3 and E4 in the Formula Editor, so the default referencing wouldn't work for this multiplication table example.

Figure 10. Clicking a reference in the Formula Editor opens a pop-up menu in which you can change the cell referencing.

The inquiring mind will dare to imagine great things from spreadsheets. Understanding the options for referencing cells in formulas will have you moving forward by leaps and bounds.

Tip 7: Save versions to mark waypoints in your work

This tip applies to Keynote and Pages, too. All three applications automatically save your documents as you work. This feature removes the need to remember to save your work periodically, but here's one reason why you still might want to save manually. Imagine a scenario where you've reached a point of perfection; your spreadsheet, essay, or slideshow is dazzlingly brilliant, but you want to try to take things further. Choose File > Save or press Command-S to save that specific version of your document. You can save as many versions as you like (see Figure 11).

Later, if you want, you can use Revert To options to restore that point of perfection. Find the revert options by choosing File > Revert To. A window appears that looks and behaves much like OS X Yosemite's Time Machine.

Figure 11. Restoring a version of a Pages, Numbers, or Keynote document opens a window very much like OS X Yosemite's Time Machine.

Tip 8: Design spreadsheets on OS X to use on iOS devices for data input

The versions of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote on your Mac are heavy hitters amid the other versions of the applications on iOS and iCloud. To make the most of the portable convenience of your iPad or iPhone, and the seamless integration of Numbers across the ecosystem of Apple products, design your spreadsheet on your Mac. Save the spreadsheet to iCloud so that you can test your design on your iPad or iPhone, and then continue refining the spreadsheet on your Mac until the design also displays neatly on your iOS device (see Figure 12).

Figure 12. The grading spreadsheet looks almost identical on iOS and OS X. (Compare Figure 12 with Figure 8.)

Of course, you can develop spreadsheets exclusively on your iOS device, but the OS X version has additional features you may find useful.

Tip 9: Use the form options on iOS

Stepping away from the OS X version of Numbers, this tip offers a great benefit for anyone entering data on an iPad or iPhone. As Tip 8 suggests, developing your spreadsheet on a Mac is likely to be the best option, but one feature in Numbers is only found in the iOS version. As you tap the plus (+) icon to create a new sheet in the iOS version of Numbers, you get two options: New Sheet or New Form (see Figure 13).

Figure 13. The Form options in Numbers for iOS are accessed via the plus (+) sign adjacent to the sheets.

Forms are based on existing tables and make data entry a cinch. Figure 14 shows the Junior Register table from Figure 12 in Form view. The image was captured on an iPad Mini, and even with the smaller screen size you can see that plenty of space is available to navigate through the register.

The interactive data formats are also available in Form view, as shown in Figure 15.

Figure 15. Interactive data formats are accessible in Form view.

Tip 10: Secure your data by using passwords

Spreadsheets often contain sensitive information, whether that's product pricing, personnel details, or a record of all the shopping you've done. Locking down a spreadsheet is not just prudent—it may be necessary to comply with data protection laws. Applying password protection is easy, and the same process is used for Keynote and Pages: Just choose File > Set Password, and enter your password in the required fields.

Conclusion

We've reached the end of our brief look at getting the most out of Numbers. Apple Pro Training Series: Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. explores these concepts in greater depth, with exercises based on real-world scenarios to help you consolidate your learning.

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Numbers is a spreadsheet application developed by Apple Inc. as part of the iWork productivity suite alongside Keynote and Pages.^[3] Numbers is available for iOS, and macOSHigh Sierra or newer.^[4] Numbers 1.0 on OS X was announced on 7 August 2007, making it the newest application in the iWork suite. The iPad version was released on 27 January 2010.^[5] The app was later updated to support iPhone and iPod Touch.

Numbers uses a free-form 'canvas' approach that demotes tables to one of many different media types placed on a page. Other media, like charts, graphics and text, are treated as peers. In comparison, traditional spreadsheets like Microsoft Excel use the table as the primary container, with other media placed within the table. Numbers also includes features from the seminal Lotus Improv, notably the use of formulas based on ranges rather than cells. However, it implements these using traditional spreadsheet concepts, as opposed to Improv's use of multidimensional databases.

Numbers also includes numerous stylistic improvements in an effort to improve the visual appearance of spreadsheets. At its introductory demonstration, Steve Jobs pitched a more usable interface and better control over the appearance and presentation of tables of data.

Description[edit]

Basic model[edit]

Numbers works in a fashion somewhat different from traditional spreadsheets like Microsoft Excel or Lotus 1-2-3. In the traditional model, the table is the first-class citizen of the system, acting as both the primary interface for work, as well as the container for other types of media like charts or digital images. In effect, the spreadsheet and the table are one and the same. In contrast, Numbers uses a separate 'canvas' as its basic container object, and tables are among the many objects that can be placed within the canvas.^{[6][N 1]}

This difference is not simply a case of syntax. In order to provide a large workspace, conventional spreadsheets extend a table in X and Y to form a very large grid—ideally infinite, but normally limited to some smaller dimension.^{[N 2]} Some of these cells, selected by the user, hold data. Data is manipulated using formulas, which are placed in other cells in the same sheet and output their results back into the formula cell's display. The rest of the sheet is 'sparse', currently unused.^[8]

Sheets often grow very complex with input data, intermediate values from formulas and output areas, separated by blank areas. In order to manage this complexity, Excel allows one to hide data that is not of interest,^[9] often intermediate values. Quattro Pro commonly introduced the idea of multiple sheets in a single book, allowing further subdivision of the data; Excel implements this as a set of tabs along the bottom of the workbook.

In contrast, Numbers does not have an underlying spreadsheet in the traditional sense, but uses multiple individual tables for this purpose.^[6] Tables are an X and Y collection of cells, like a sheet, but extend only to the limits of the data they hold. Each section of data, or output from formulas, can be combined into an existing table, or placed into a new table. Tables can be collected by the user onto single or multiple canvases. Whereas a typical Excel sheet has data strewn across it, a Numbers canvas could build the same output through smaller individual tables encompassing the same data.^[10]

Formulas and functions[edit]

Consider a simple spreadsheet being used to calculate the average value of all car sales in a month for a given year. The sheet might contain the month number or name in column A, the number of cars sold in column B, and the total income in column C. The user wishes to complete the task of 'calculate the average income per car sold by dividing the total income by the number of cars sold, and put the resulting average in column D'. From the user's perspective, the values in the cells have semantic content, they are 'cars sold' and 'total income', and they want to manipulate this to produce an output value, 'average price'.

In traditional spreadsheets, the semantic value of the numbers is lost. The number in cell B2 is not 'the number of cars sold in the month of January', but simply 'the value in cell B2'. The formula for calculating the average is based on the manipulation of the cells, in the form =C2/B2. As the spreadsheet is unaware of the user's desire for D to be an output column, the user copies that formula into all of the cells in D. However, as the formula refers to data on different rows, it must be modified as it is copied into the cells in D, changing it to refer to the correct row. For instance, the formula in D4 would read =C4/B4. Excel automates this later task by using a relative referencing system that works as long as the cells retain their location relative to the formula. However, this system requires Excel to track any changes to the layout of the sheet and adjust the formulas, a process that is far from foolproof.^[11]

During the development of Improv, the Lotus team discovered that these sorts of formulas were both difficult to use, and resistant to future changes in the spreadsheet layout.^[12] Their solution was to make the user explicitly define the semantic content of the sheets—that the B column contained 'cars sold'. These data ranges were known as 'categories'. Formulas were written by referring to these categories by name, creating a new category that could be (if desired) placed in the sheet for display. Using the car example, the formula in Improv would be average per car = total income / cars sold. Changes to the layout of the sheet would not affect the formulas; the data remains defined no matter where it is moved. It also meant that formulas calculating intermediate values did not have to be placed in the sheet and normally did not take up room. The downside to Improv's approach is that it demanded more information from the user up-front, and was considered less suitable for 'quick and dirty' calculations or basic list building.^[13]

Numbers uses a hybrid approach to the creation of formulas, supporting the use of named data like Improv, but implementing them in-sheet like Excel. In basic operation, Numbers can be used just like Excel; data can be typed anywhere and formulas can be created by referring to the data by its cell. However, if the user types a header into the table, something one normally does as a matter of course, Numbers uses this to automatically construct a named range for the cells on that row or column. For instance, if the user types 'month' into A1, and then types the names 'January', 'February', etc. into the cells below it, Numbers constructs a named range for the cells A2 through A13 and gives it the name 'month'. The same is true when the user types in the figures for 'sales' and 'income'. The user can then write the averaging formula in a category-like text format, = total income / cars sold. The formula will find the appropriate data and calculate the results independent of the row.^[14] Like Improv, this formula does not refer to the physical location of the data in the sheet, so the sheet can be dramatically modified without causing the formula to fail.^[14]

Similar to Improv, formulas can be represented as icons in Numbers, allowing them to be dragged about the sheets. One noteworthy example of this is a sidebar which contains the sum, average and other basic calculations for the current selection in the active table. These serve a function similar to the sum that appears at the bottom of the window in Excel. However, the user can drag one of the function icons from the sidebar into the sheet to make the calculation appear in that location.^[14] In another nod to Improv, the Formula List shows all of the formulas in the spreadsheet in a separate area, and allows edits in place or easy navigation to their use in the sheets.

Numbers '09 contains 262 built-in functions that can be used in formulas.^[15] This contrasts with Excel 2007's 338 functions.^[16] Many of the functions in Numbers are identical to those in Excel; missing ones tend to be related to statistics, although this area was greatly improved in Numbers '09.^[17]

Numbers '09 includes a system for categorizing data similar to pivot tables. Pivots were introduced in Improv and were manipulated by dragging the category headers,^[17] allowing the user to quickly rotate rows into columns or vice versa. Although Numbers has similar draggable objects representing formulas, they are not used for this feature and the direct manipulation is missing. Instead, Numbers places pop-up menus in the column headers allowing the user to collapse multiple rows into totals (sums, averages, etc.) based on data that is common across rows. This is similar functionality to a pivot table, but lacks the ease of re-arrangement of the Improv model and other advanced features. Numbers 5.2, released on September 17, 2018,^[18] further improves on these features by adding Smart Categories, allowing the user to 'quickly organize and summarize tables to gain new insights'.^[19]

Layout and display[edit]

As Numbers uses the canvas as the basis for the document, media is not tied to the tables; one could build a Numbers canvas with a collection of photographs and no tables. In typical use, one or more tables are placed on the canvas and sized and styled to show only the data of interest. Charts and labels are commonly positioned around the tables. Other media, like photographs or illustrations, can be added as well.^[20] Numbers' display-centric model has been referred to as a 'page layout and presentation app disguised as a spreadsheet app'.^[21]

Like other products in the iWork suite, Numbers includes a variety of styles and layouts designed by professional illustrators. Opening an Excel sheet in Numbers results in a display with smooth fonts, and clean layout and color selections. These can then be modified, optionally using one of the supplied templates, and saved out to Excel format again with these styles intact. Numbers also allows sheets to be emailed in Excel format in a single step, or shared through Numbers for iCloud.

Reception[edit]

Numbers has been well received in the press, notably for its text-based formulas, clean looks and ease of use.^[22][23][24]Macworld has given it high marks, especially newer versions, awarding Numbers '09 four mice out of five. They did point out a number of common issues, especially problems exporting to Excel and the inability to 'lock' cells to prevent them moving when the table is scrolled.^[17] Numbers for the iPhone and iPad have received similar favorable reviews.^[25]

However, version 3.0 of Numbers created an outpouring of complaints due to the loss of important business features,^[26][27] with the Apple support community showing a 10 to 1 ratio of dissatisfied users with the newer version of Numbers. Versions 4 and 5 of the software put many of these features back as well as adding many new features and functionalities.^[28] In their review of Version 5, MacWorld concluded that 'Numbers 5 for Mac advances the app, making it more useful for more purposes with less effort, but it’s still a shadow of full-feature business spreadsheet programs.'^[29]

Other notable features[edit]

• Highly table-centric workflow, where lists are easy to structure with headers and summaries.
• Checkbox, slider, and pulldown list cells.
• Drag and drop of functions from a sidebar into cells.
• A Print Preview that allows all editing functions while previewing, as well as realtime scaling and moving of tables to arrange them freely on the page(s).
• Exports to Microsoft Excel, but lacks certain Excel features, including Visual Basic for Applications (absent in the 2008 version of Office for Mac, although it was reintroduced for the 2011 version) and pivot tables.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

1. ^For reasons that are not mentioned in the documentation, canvases are referred to as 'sheets' within the program.
2. ^Numbers can handle up to 1,000,000 rows by 1,000 columns per table^[7], versus the latest versions of Excel from Office 2010 onwards having a maximum of 1,048,576 rows by 16,384 columns. Excel has changed its maximum size many times, originally 16,384 rows by 128 columns, while other programs of the same era often compared themselves by increasing this, e.g. WingZ was 32,768 by 32,768 for instance.

Mac Os Numbers App Android

References[edit]

Mac Os Numbers App Download

1. ^'Numbers'. Mac App Store. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
2. ^'Numbers'. App Store. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
3. ^'Apple - iWork - Numbers - Create perfect spreadsheets in minutes'. Apple Inc. Retrieved June 13, 2010.
4. ^'Pages 7.2, Numbers 5.2, and Keynote 8.2'. Tidbits. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
5. ^'Apple - iPad - Innovative spreadsheets in just a few taps'. Apple Inc. Retrieved June 13, 2010.
6. ^ ^ab'Numbers, uncrunched.', Apple Inc.
7. ^'About working with large data sets in Numbers'
8. ^Josef Stoer and Roland Bulirsch, 'Introduction to Numerical Analysis (3rd ed.)', Springer-Verlag, 2002, p. 610
9. ^David Ringstrom, 'Tricks for hiding and unhiding Excel rows and columns', accounting web, April 17, 2009
10. ^Hugo Jobling, 'Apple iWork '09', Trusted Reviews, February 19, 2009, p. 3
11. ^Paul McFedries, 'Copying and Moving Formulas', Building Basic Formulas in Excel, August 27, 2004
12. ^Simson Garfinkel, 'Improv: The Inside Story', NEXTWORLD, Fall 1991, p. 34
13. ^Joel Spolsky, 'The best software writing', Apress, 2005, p. 25
14. ^ ^abc'Formulas for everyone', Apple Inc.
15. ^'250+ Functions', Apple Inc.
16. ^'Excel functions (alphabetical list)'Archived August 30, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, Microsoft
17. ^ ^abcRob Griffiths, 'Review: Numbers ’09', Macworld.com, January 27, 2009
18. ^'What's new in Numbers for Mac'. Apple Support. Retrieved October 9, 2018.
19. ^https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT209054
20. ^'Intelligent tables', Apple Inc.
21. ^'iWork ’08 Review: NUMBERS—Spreadsheet Layout App', Two A Day, August 23, 2007
22. ^Phil Windley, 'A First Look at Apple's Numbers spreadsheet', ZDNet, August 9, 2007
23. ^Rob Griffiths, 'Apple Numbers '08 spreadsheet software', PC Advisor, August 21, 2007
24. ^Tiffany Maleshefski, 'Apple iWork 08 Provides Simple But Solid Spreadsheet App', eWeek, August 17, 2007
25. ^Jason Parker, 'Numbers for iPhone', cnet, May 31, 2011
26. ^'What has been gained in Numbers 3.0'. Apple support community. October 31, 2013.
27. ^'What has been lost in Numbers 3.0'. Apple support community. October 31, 2013.
28. ^'What's new in Numbers for Mac'. Apple Support Pages. May 4, 2018.
29. ^Fleishman, Glenn (April 11, 2018). 'Numbers 5 for Mac review: Inching closer to being a more full-featured spreadsheet app'. MacWorld.

Numbers For Mac

External links[edit]

Mac Os Numbers And Names

• Numbers—official site
• Numbers—Free resources at iWork Community