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"Numbers" question
#62710 10/27/22 07:27 PM
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[rant]I understand their necessity, but I HATE design copyrights! I've got no Windows experience, so I've got no feel for how it differs from macOS, but I recently switched from Excel to Numbers, and I'm almost overwhelmed by the differences.[/rant]

Excel has a pref that enabled me to select the direction in which my cursor moves when I hit "return" after entering data in a cell...my preference being to the cell to the right. Numbers defaults to the cell below, and if there's a way to change it, I've had zero luck finding it.

Anybody?

Thanks!


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: "Numbers" question
artie505 #62714 10/28/22 12:48 PM
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Well, I don't use Numbers. But, in Excel, the right arrow key will move the focus to the right.

Re: "Numbers" question
Gregg #62715 10/28/22 01:07 PM
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Excel offers pref options, and as you just said, reacts to the arrow keys too, but while Numbers also reacts to the arrows, "return" as "move cursor right" works better for me, and I'd like it to be able to set it as my default, but...


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: "Numbers" question
artie505 #62717 10/28/22 05:20 PM
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The option may not exist, but Tab will move you to the next cell. On a standard keyboard this move can be done with the left little finger, as opposed to the right little finger for Return. This move also keeps your brain energized, like brushing your teeth with your opposite hand. wink


On a Mac since 1984.
Currently: 24" M1 iMac, M2 Pro Mac mini with 27" BenQ monitor, M2 Macbook Air, MacOS 14.x; iPhones, iPods (yes, still) and iPads.
Re: "Numbers" question
Ira L #62720 10/28/22 08:05 PM
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For what it is worth I just checked MacPilot 14, that has literally thousands of hidden macOS preference settings and the only hidden Numbers preferences it offers are:
  • Do not create TOC for Excel documents
  • Save compression level
  • Use human-readable XML file format


So I think you are out of luck.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: "Numbers" question
joemikeb #62721 10/29/22 08:47 AM
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Thanks, all, for the input.

I'm not the least bit sure why I'm married to the pref, but I guess I'll just have to learn to live without it and use the arrows instead.

I'd love to have been around for some of the discussions about which aspects of Excel could and couldn't be reproduced in Numbers, and how to reproduce the ones that could.

It seems like the app was developed by lawyers, rather than by software engineers.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: "Numbers" question
artie505 #62725 10/29/22 11:18 AM
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Jon

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Re: "Numbers" question
jchuzi #62726 10/29/22 11:59 AM
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Thanks a million for that, Jon! I've done the deal already.

I had decided to forego upgrading my Office installation, because I didn't feel like investing another $75 or so, but I'm finding Numbers annoying enough that it's worth the $40.

Icing! First time in a few years that I haven't been charged sales tax. laugh

(I first checked to make certain that Numbers can export to Excel.)


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: "Numbers" question
Ira L #62731 10/29/22 07:04 PM
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Originally Posted by Ira L
The option may not exist, but Tab will move you to the next cell. On a standard keyboard this move can be done with the left little finger, as opposed to the right little finger for Return. This move also keeps your brain energized, like brushing your teeth with your opposite hand. wink
You've apparently got body parts that I've never even heard of! tongue


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: "Numbers" question
jchuzi #62732 10/29/22 07:54 PM
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Thanks again, Jon.

I didn't realize how much I missed Excel until I restored it...as they say, it's a mechaya! laugh


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: "Numbers" question
artie505 #62734 10/30/22 11:19 AM
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Much as I dislike Microsoft, I must admit that the Office suite is really good. The only app that I use is Word, but I can't abide by Pages (annoying and unintuitive). Word does what I want and even my wife (technology challenged) can use it.


Jon

macOS 11.7.10, iMac Retina 5K 27-inch, late 2014, 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 1 TB fusion drive, 16 GB RAM, Epson SureColor P600, Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, MS Office 365
Re: "Numbers" question
jchuzi #62735 10/30/22 11:42 AM
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The unfortunate fact of the matter is that design copyrights dictate that whoever comes first gets the right of way, and everyone else has got to navigate around them, so Numbers, Pages, and any other Apple apps that mimic MS Office apps are basically compilations of workarounds and compromises.

Similarly, Windows suffers the same fate in reverse.

Having run Numbers for a month or two and reverted to Excel, I'm now married to Excel.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: "Numbers" question
artie505 #62737 10/30/22 03:19 PM
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Originally Posted by artie505
Having run Numbers for a month or two and reverted to Excel, I'm now married to Excel.
I've tried Numbers a few times thinking that, if I could get an Apple spreadsheet equivalent to Excel, I'd change over. But, I've always found Numbers had too many differences to make a changeover easy.

My guess is it's because Excel started off on the Mac and was GIF from the ground up instead of trying to adapt software to be "like" the Mac (Windows comes to mind). I recall using MS Multiplan, the only spreadsheet available for Mac when the machine was first released, and it was 'okay' but Excel (about 1984 or 1985) blew it out of the water. Excel was so good that Microsoft ported it over to 'those other machines' about three years later.


ryck

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Re: "Numbers" question
ryck #62755 11/02/22 10:26 AM
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I just noticed that the same file that was 2.3 MB in Numbers is 53 KB in Excel.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: "Numbers" question
artie505 #62760 11/02/22 11:40 PM
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Originally Posted by artie505
I just noticed that the same file that was 2.3 MB in Numbers is 53 KB in Excel.

And If you looked inside the Numbers file you will find it is, or at least used to be, a package file. (I vaguely recall reading somewhere that Apple had changed the internal format, perhaps to a database format) but in either case there are multiple files in the package. The reported file size is the size of the allocated sectors and each file gets a separate sector, but the actual data content is often significantly less.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: "Numbers" question
joemikeb #62761 11/03/22 03:16 AM
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Originally Posted by joemikeb
The reported file size is the size of the allocated sectors and each file gets a separate sector, but the actual data content is often significantly less.
Same as with block size v block contents, then?


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: "Numbers" question
artie505 #62765 11/03/22 06:48 PM
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Originally Posted by artie505
Originally Posted by joemikeb
The reported file size is the size of the allocated sectors and each file gets a separate sector, but the actual data content is often significantly less.
Same as with block size v block contents, then?

Yep!


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein

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