What We Like (and don't like) About Numbers

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What We Like (and don't like) About Numbers

Postby RexinMinn » Mon Jan 31, 2011 8:38 pm

I'm trying really hard to embrace Numbers as my primary tool for developing data using spreadsheets. I publish a baseball history journal three times a year on paper, and I do all my own work. It can be a big job just wrestling with the enormous amount of data that's becoming available on ballplayers before 1960 which is my focus.

In the last week a handful of people from this site have encouraged me to keep using Numbers by their support and assistance. I want to capitalize on that energy by moving the discussion in a slightly different direction here.

As I continue to wade through the complexity of Numbers, I'm slowly getting accustomed to some of its quirks. But I find myself focusing on the things I DON"T like about it, and thought that instead of complaining about everything I find clumsy, I could say something about what I DO like about Numbers. I would invite each of you to do the same as you use this program.

I'll start this off by saying one thing I like about Numbers: I like the flexible use of color, especially for "fill" which I use as demarcation lines between entries.

And here's something I don't like: I don't like the window that appears when I want to perform a "sort" because the window then stays on screen waiting for me to cancel it by clicking its red light. The less mouse use the better.

OK, who's next?
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Re: What We Like (and don't like) About Numbers

Postby Peggy » Tue Feb 01, 2011 1:02 pm

Of the top of my head, I like:

Multiple tabels on a sheet. This is especially helpful with my log of weather data.

Multiple sheets per document rather than the multiple files I had in AppleWorks. Again, with my weather data, a separate sheet for each year, but all in one file. A separate sheet for monthly & annual totals that pulls the info from the other sheets.

I know I could add more, but it's early in the day (for me).
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Re: What We Like (and don't like) About Numbers

Postby RexinMinn » Tue Feb 01, 2011 3:40 pm

Thanks for sharing that Peggy.

Another thing I Do Not like about Numbers is that my Find feature does not seem to work. I know full well there are multiple cells containing "Sep 23" but when I use the finder to locate each of them, it is unresponsive.

Another thing I do not like about Number is that I can't use the "open apple/G" shortcut to go from the lower portion of a page to an upper portion. I used the help feature to find out more about shortcuts but the help feature was pretty much worthless. It mentioned using "page up" so I tried that and it seems to work to push the page up, but I still don't see how I can specify a particular row number or cell ID.

The thing that bothers me is that the people who designed Numbers knew full well that most of the users would be converting from AW. So why not create a conversion table showing what the AW command was and how the same function would be performed in Numbers? OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT!! That would have made wayyyyy too much sense... Just really goes to show that the GEEKS designing these things have their headS in the clouds and aren't nearly as clever about being utilitarian, practical or efficient as they think they are.
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Re: What We Like (and don't like) About Numbers

Postby Barry » Wed Feb 02, 2011 3:17 pm

"Another thing I Do Not like about Numbers is that my Find feature does not seem to work. I know full well there are multiple cells containing "Sep 23" but when I use the finder to locate each of them, it is unresponsive."

Actually, unless you've formatted those cells as text before entering "Sep 23", that's not what they contain, just what they display. The actual content of the cell doesn't change when the user chooses to display 2011/09/23, September 23, 2011, 23-Sep, Sep-11, Sep 23, or any of the other choices available for Data and Time values.

That said, Numbers should be able to find such partial Date and Time values, but to date (and to my knowledge), can't.

Time for a Feature Request: Numbers (menu) > Provide Numbers Feedback.

Regards,
Barry
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Re: What We Like (and don't like) About Numbers

Postby RexinMinn » Wed Feb 02, 2011 4:27 pm

I'm happy to do it. How does one go about making such a Feature Request? And once I do this, is there ever any follow-up? That's another problem. People ARE NOT ENCOURAGED to send in suggestions/comments/feature requests because they believe their ideas are going to end up in cyberspace. But if a system was in place which put a real person (ideally a new job in the US) in charge of contacting people with their ideas, the product (Numbers, in this case) could improve according to what actual users are doing. Seems so simple, yet we all know it's unattainable because the big companies, even Apple, are too busy kow-towing to their shareholders who demand a minimum profit margin which, contrary to most international standards, is held to a grotesquely elevated percentage. Unfortunately, this means a "less than ideal" situation between product development and boardroom machinations. And so it goes. UC?
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Re: What We Like (and don't like) About Numbers

Postby Barry » Fri Feb 04, 2011 2:05 am

RexinMinn wrote:I'm happy to do it. How does one go about making such a Feature Request?


Already stated in my previous message: Numbers (menu) > Provide Numbers Feedback.

And once I do this, is there ever any follow-up?


Nothing direct, but considering the number of changes between versions 1 and 2 of Numbers, I'd say a reasonable conclusion is that Apple does read the Feedback, and does pass on feature requests to the development team. Not all requests, I'm sure.

That's another problem. People ARE NOT ENCOURAGED to send in suggestions/comments/feature requests because they believe their ideas are going to end up in cyberspace.


And, of course, if they choose to not send in suggestions/comments/feature requests, those ideas will end up in a much better place.

Regards,
Barry
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