AppleWorks-Spreadsheet (and/or Database)

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AppleWorks-Spreadsheet (and/or Database)

Postby bob4apples » Mon Apr 04, 2011 8:25 pm

I am NEW to using AppleWorks on an old iMac. (Belongs to my parents) I am proficient on a PC using Excel, but have a question (or a few) about Apple.

I have created a template spreadsheet; saved it; copied & saved as a new name. Can I create another "page" or "tab" as in Excel to house an item list (or database) of "parts"?

The application of which (if you understand how I want to use this info) is to do a "Takeoff" of items from a set of blueprint drawings using the spreadsheet. I would like to establish a LIST of all possible items available to be used as a Master Inventory List. The idea is to be able to cut/paste items from the Master List into the Spreadsheet.

How or What do I do? :?: Thanks for the remedial help! 8)
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Re: AppleWorks-Spreadsheet (and/or Database)

Postby Barry » Sat Apr 09, 2011 2:18 am

bob4apples wrote:I am NEW to using AppleWorks on an old iMac. (Belongs to my parents) I am proficient on a PC using Excel, but have a question (or a few) about Apple.


Hi Bob,

Although I'm still using AppleWorks for it's database capabilities, I wouldn't recommend anyone start using the application at this time. AppleWorks development effectively ended in 2004 (some would say much earlier), and the product was declared to be at End of Life about a year later. While it will probably work fine on your parent's old iMac, AppleWorks is becoming increasingly incompatible with each update to the Mac O, and there seems to be a pretty strong consensus that it (and other vintage applications that depend on Rosetta) will not run at all under OS X v10.7, expected to be released sometime this year. Should your parent's old iMac be replaced by a new computer next year, that would be the likely OS version supplied with it.

I have created a template spreadsheet; saved it; copied & saved as a new name. Can I create another "page" or "tab" as in Excel to house an item list (or database) of "parts"?


No, but you can create a second "View" that takes you to the part of the spreadsheet where your "parts" table is located.

The application of which (if you understand how I want to use this info) is to do a "Takeoff" of items from a set of blueprint drawings using the spreadsheet. I would like to establish a LIST of all possible items available to be used as a Master Inventory List. The idea is to be able to cut/paste items from the Master List into the Spreadsheet.


If you are transferring via cut/paste, it would be just as easy to place the "parts" table into a separate document. Open both, then toggle between them using the Window menu, or by pressing command-~ (hold down command, tap the key with the tilde (~), located above the tab key on the left of the keyboard). This will toggle between two open windows in the same application, or rotate among more than two windows open in the same application.

Regards,
Barry
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Re: AppleWorks-Spreadsheet (and/or Database)

Postby bob4apples » Sat Apr 09, 2011 4:48 pm

Thanks Barry for the information. I'll try your suggestions and see if it works for me. I'm not surprised to hear the app is outdated. Other than a robust table of inventory items to build, the compilation on the "other" sheet will be fairly simple.

Thanks again for the help.

Regards,
Bob
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Re: AppleWorks-Spreadsheet (and/or Database)

Postby haumann » Tue Jul 05, 2011 9:25 pm

Hello folks. I'm a bit late to the party here, but I thought I might expand on Barry's suggestion of creating a second "sheet" by adding the info to another part of the one-page AW spreadsheet.

I've often found that when creating multiple areas of information (the two or more "virtual sheets"), I invariably encounter the need to insert (or delete) a row or column at some later date in one of the "sheets". That creates a problem if the various areas are oriented vertically (one under the previous) or horizontally across the spreadsheet.

AAAA BBBB CCCC
AAAA BBBB CCCC
AAAA BBBB CCCC
AAAA BBBB CCCC

For example, with the above arrangement, inserting a row in area B also affects areas A and C, and this may not be desirable. If the individual areas are arranged vertically, row insertion/deletion isn't a problem, but the insertion (or deletion) of a column in one area then affects all the "sheets". (The vertical arrangement also limits your column width flexibility)

To avoid the problems, arrange the virtual "sheet" areas in your spreadsheet diagonally...

AAAA
AAAA
AAAA
          BBBB
          BBBB
          BBBB
                   CCCC
                   CCCC
                   CCCC

This allows the addition or deletion of rows or columns in any individual sheet area without affecting the layout in any of the other areas (and the column widths can be set independently for any column in any area -- same goes for row height).

John@was
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