Becoming Proficient With Apple Numbers

[Bandaman]

I really hate Excel. And I've been slowly going through the process of eliminating all things Microsoft and Google from my life. Which brings us to Numbers.

I want to actually take the time to proficiently learn spreadsheets (adding formulas to rows/columns/etc), but nothing too complex. Just adding up things for my yearly taxes (I'm not doing anything more complicated than income and expenses )and other basic things.

Are any of you fully in the "iWork" ecosystem with Apple and are using Apple Numbers as your daily driver for spreadsheets? Is there an easy way to become very proficient at it other than searching endlessly online? Is Apple Numbers enough for you to avoid using Excel entirely? I'm not sharing spreadsheets with anyone but myself, so I don't particularly care about compatibility.

Any insight is much appreciated.

 

[hg.wells]

Hi Bandaman, Numbers is a great app and is often over looked because of missing features compared to Excel and as you mentioned compatibility with Excel. If I have no need to share spreadsheets with Windows users, Numbers is my default, it looks a lot cleaner and always gets the job done.

There are a couple of sites to look into, this page highlights all the new features, such as the addition of pivot tables now: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207244

This page is the Numbers user guide, make sure you select table of contents to see the full list of information available:

Numbers User Guide for Mac

Learn how to use Numbers for Mac to create organized spreadsheets using tables, charts, formulas, and more.

support.apple.com

 

[throAU]

I've tried to use numbers a bit but to be honest I've used excel since the 90s and numbers just works too differently.

I really should check it out as my main usage of Excel was just dealing with CSV files to get data in and out of powershell.

If all you're wanting to use it for is personal stuff you'll probably be fine; where excel really has the edge is connectivity to things like SQL Server, MS access, etc. via ODBC.


But that aside... the best way to learn imho is by doing. Pick something you want to do in Numbers that you'd otherwise do with excel and figure it out. A lot of the stuff is similar... formulas, etc.; in fact numbers seems to make formulas easier to read.

 

[hg.wells]

I've tried to use numbers a bit but to be honest I've used excel since the 90s and numbers just works too differently.

Great point throAU, I think that is the problem with most people who try to switch is comparing it to Excel. While there are definitely similarities in things like formulas, Numbers layout is very different to Excel.

 

[throAU]

Great point throAU, I think that is the problem with most people who try to switch is comparing it to Excel. While there are definitely similarities in things like formulas, Numbers layout is very different to Excel.

For sure.

Like I said I need to give it a good go again, last time I tried was a few years ago.

Numbers is in this weird sort of niche where it doesn't do anywhere near as much stuff as excel, at least not the sort of stuff an enterprise wants, so learning it won't help so much for work. So if you're going to learn one spreadsheet excel is most useful for employment reasons.

What do you hate about excel? IMHO its one of the very few Microsoft products that actually doesn't suck. That said, the Mac version running on intel runs really badly, so understand if the performance is a reason you hate it.

 

[GerritV]

I would like to recommend the macmostvideo chanel, it offers quite some interesting Numbers tutorial videos.

 

[960design]

Are any of you fully in the "iWork" ecosystem with Apple and are using Apple Numbers as your daily driver for spreadsheets? Is there an easy way to become very proficient at it other than searching endlessly online? Is Apple Numbers enough for you to avoid using Excel entirely? I'm not sharing spreadsheets with anyone but myself, so I don't particularly care about compatibility.

Any insight is much appreciated.

Yes. I am. Running Apple native apps for many years.
Is Numbers enough, certainly it is. The only complaints are the Excel macro users. Macros extend the functionality of Excel. In the best of cases, macros are amazing. Most often I see macros abused to the point where it would have been much easier to just create a simple application.

If macros are a requirement, stick with Excel.

 

[960design]

If I have no need to share spreadsheets with Windows users, Numbers is my default, it looks a lot cleaner and always gets the job done.

I work in a Windows environment ( surrounded by something like 30k windows computers ). I collaborate with numbers documents quite frequently. In my opinion, much better/easier to collaborate with Numbers than it ever was in Excel ( of course, I have not used Excel in over 5 years, certainly it has evolved with the times ).

 

[ignatius345]

One thing I've come to really appreciate about Numbers is that each "tab" is really a new canvas. In addition to (or even instead of) tables, you can drop all kinds of graphics, media, PDFs, or use the built-in drawing tools as you would in Keynote or Pages. You can also put multiple tables in a single tab if you want. Potentially makes it super useful to keep track of different kinds of information related to a project.



The iWork suite in general is quite underrated. I've used Keynote extensively to build presentations professionally, and it's much better than PowerPoint. And although I use Illustrator and InDesign for a living, I will still open Pages or Keynote sometimes for a quick little project -- mainly because iWork is so well integrated into the Mac in a way Adobe and Microsoft apps very much are not.

I can't speak to the hard-core features of Word and Excel. For those who need them, they need them -- but for the rest of us iWork is much more streamlined and smooth to work with.

My big wish, of course, is that Apple would break down and create Windows versions of these apps. Cross-platform collaboration is the #1 reason it ends up being hard to stay within iWork, in my experience anyway.

 

[jkestner]

I'm not a big enterprise person, but I haven't had to deal with Microsoft apps in some time. Apple's apps all do a fine job of importing/exporting Microsoft docs, though I'm sure more complicated documents will strain that. I use Numbers a lot as a sketchpad for new products, modeling BOMs, wrangling data, whatever spreadsheets are generally good for. It presents less friction for me to get thoughts down, and works without a hitch synced through iCloud across the Mac and my iPad.

I really should check it out as my main usage of Excel was just dealing with CSV files to get data in and out of powershell.

You should! Don't know if it'll work for your use cases, but Numbers has a little wizard when you open a CSV/TSV in it that shows you a preview and lets you tweak how the file is parsed. Saves me a text processing step sometimes.

 

[funwithstuff]

One thing I've come to really appreciate about Numbers is that each "tab" is really a new canvas. In addition to (or even instead of) tables, you can drop all kinds of graphics, media, PDFs, or use the built-in drawing tools as you would in Keynote or Pages. You can also put multiple tables in a single tab if you want. Potentially makes it super useful to keep track of different kinds of information related to a project.

View attachment 1910928

The iWork suite in general is quite underrated. I've used Keynote extensively to build presentations professionally, and it's much better than PowerPoint. And although I use Illustrator and InDesign for a living, I will still open Pages or Keynote sometimes for a quick little project -- mainly because iWork is so well integrated into the Mac in a way Adobe and Microsoft apps very much are not.

I can't speak to the hard-core features of Word and Excel. For those who need them, they need them -- but for the rest of us iWork is much more streamlined and smooth to work with.

My big wish, of course, is that Apple would break down and create Windows versions of these apps. Cross-platform collaboration is the #1 reason it ends up being hard to stay within iWork, in my experience anyway.

iCloud.com does work on Windows, and since most people can access an iPhone or iPad, they usually have access of some kind to the iWork apps. I often recommend Keynote and/or Numbers as a way to make vector-format graphs and workflow diagrams in PDF format; Excel and Adobe Illustrator still do a bad job of this.

If anyone wants to learn Keynote in a course, I made this: https://macprovideo.com/course/keynote-in-depth?afid=379TY2DhoP

I don't have anything for Pages or Numbers though.

 

[Madhatter32]

The biggest problem people have with Numbers is that it does not function exactly the same as Excel. There is a small learning curve. I made the transition and everytime I needed to perform a task I knew from Excel but did not know how to do in Numbers, I would have to play around or do a google search. Once I learned, it all became very seamless. Most people can get along fine in Numbers unless you are a power user who needs special functionality or are concerned with formatting compatibility issues.

 

[sracer]

I really hate Excel. And I've been slowly going through the process of eliminating all things Microsoft and Google from my life. Which brings us to Numbers.

I want to actually take the time to proficiently learn spreadsheets (adding formulas to rows/columns/etc), but nothing too complex. Just adding up things for my yearly taxes (I'm not doing anything more complicated than income and expenses )and other basic things.

Are any of you fully in the "iWork" ecosystem with Apple and are using Apple Numbers as your daily driver for spreadsheets? Is there an easy way to become very proficient at it other than searching endlessly online? Is Apple Numbers enough for you to avoid using Excel entirely? I'm not sharing spreadsheets with anyone but myself, so I don't particularly care about compatibility.

Any insight is much appreciated.

I'm a heavy iWorks user (as well as MS Office, Google Docs Suite, and LibreOffice). Pages and Keynote are preferred options for word processing and presentation.

I would recommend NOT getting comfortable with Apple Numbers for spreadsheet usage. It is the weakest of the 3 apps in iWork and function so differently from "traditional" spreadsheet apps that if you get comfortable with how it works, then you'll find every other spreadsheet app awkward should you ever need to use something else.

I'm a big fan of "Think Different" when using an unfamiliar tool and take the time and effort to re-learn HOW to perform tasks that need to get done. But I've never been able to think different enough to make using Numbers a more enjoyable experience than using Excel or Google Sheets.

 

[throAU]

The strongest of the iWork suite being keynote. You can tell Steve must have been all over the developers for that one! ?

I did a whole presentation that looks great in keynote with zero prior experience in way way less time than PowerPoint

I’d agree with the above numbers assessment. It seems aimed more at keeping pretty lists than actual number crunching. Which is fine and probably great for home or casual users. But an excel competitor it isn’t.

 

[Bandaman]

The biggest problem people have with Numbers is that it does not function exactly the same as Excel. There is a small learning curve. I made the transition and everytime I needed to perform a task I knew from Excel but did not know how to do in Numbers, I would have to play around or do a google search. Once I learned, it all became very seamless. Most people can get along fine in Numbers unless you are a power user who needs special functionality or are concerned with formatting compatibility issues.

I have no plans to ever use Excel so I'm not concerned with compatibility issues. I'm definitely not ever going to become an advanced user, I was just curious for those that use it exclusively if it is enough for their needs and everyone has definitely helped me in that regard. Lots of helpful links and advice in here. Thanks.

 

[ignatius345]

iCloud.com does work on Windows, and since most people can access an iPhone or iPad, they usually have access of some kind to the iWork apps.

For the kinds of decks I've built, with custom fonts, it's the "of some kind" that has always been the hitch. I also remember the motion effects being a lot more limited than in the native app. On the other hand, it's been a couple years since I've played around with the web-based version on iCloud.com, so maybe it's gotten better.

I often recommend Keynote and/or Numbers as a way to make vector-format graphs and workflow diagrams in PDF format; Excel and Adobe Illustrator still do a bad job of this.

One great power user feature: you can copy vector objects from Illustrator and paste them directly into Keynote. It makes building good decks much easier and faster than having to export PNGs or whatever like you have to in PPT.

If anyone wants to learn Keynote in a course, I made this: https://macprovideo.com/course/keynote-in-depth?afid=379TY2DhoP

Very cool! I'm a huge fan of Keynote. I do wish it had a 60fps video export option, though. The native export option puts out a 30fps video that lacks a lot of smoothness. I've fudged it with making screen captures while playing a deck at a higher frame rate, but that's definitely hacky.

 

[funwithstuff]

Very cool! I'm a huge fan of Keynote. I do wish it had a 60fps video export option, though. The native export option puts out a 30fps video that lacks a lot of smoothness. I've fudged it with making screen captures while playing a deck at a higher frame rate, but that's definitely hacky.

I have some good news for you: Keynote now supports 60fps, 4K, ProRes 4444 export with transparency if you want it.

 

[ignatius345]

I have some good news for you: Keynote now supports 60fps, 4K, ProRes 4444 export with transparency if you want it.

This is fantastic news, thanks!

edit: just played around with it and was able to export a gorgeous 60fps 4K video of a deck I built. I wish this had existed a few years ago when I was doing a ton of Keynote decks for people using PCs...

 

[SalisburySam]

I really hate Excel. And I've been slowly going through the process of eliminating all things Microsoft and Google from my life. Which brings us to Numbers.

I want to actually take the time to proficiently learn spreadsheets (adding formulas to rows/columns/etc), but nothing too complex. Just adding up things for my yearly taxes (I'm not doing anything more complicated than income and expenses )and other basic things.

Are any of you fully in the "iWork" ecosystem with Apple and are using Apple Numbers as your daily driver for spreadsheets? Is there an easy way to become very proficient at it other than searching endlessly online? Is Apple Numbers enough for you to avoid using Excel entirely? I'm not sharing spreadsheets with anyone but myself, so I don't particularly care about compatibility.

Any insight is much appreciated.

I'm a spreadsheet user of long standing, from VisiCalc to QuattroPro to Lotus1-2-3 to Excel and finally to Numbers. My fav has always been Borland's QuattroPro (loved their Paradox database tool) but that's long gone now. For me, Excel (and its companion Office products) have become such bloatware offering hoards of features and functions I will never conceive of ever using. Its complexity was the main driver to move to Numbers about 5 years ago and I haven't looked back. Yes if you need the Excel macros and other abstruse functionality by all means you'll need to stick with it. If you don't, Numbers is quite appealing.

As to learning Numbers here's what I did:
1- take a relatively simple Excel spreadsheet that you created, and replicate it in Numbers. Don't import it, build it from scratch. Keep the Numbers Help file open, and refer to it every time you can't do something or you get different results than the Excel build.
2- Lather, rinse, and repeat #1 with more complex spreadsheets. You'll very quickly learn Numbers basics and limitations and likely be surprised at how much it really can do, how easy it is, and maybe learn to prefer it. At least I did.

Good luck with your quest.

 

[johnkree]

One thing I've come to really appreciate about Numbers is that each "tab" is really a new canvas. In addition to (or even instead of) tables, you can drop all kinds of graphics, media, PDFs, or use the built-in drawing tools as you would in Keynote or Pages. You can also put multiple tables in a single tab if you want. Potentially makes it super useful to keep track of different kinds of information related to a project.

View attachment 1910928

The iWork suite in general is quite underrated. I've used Keynote extensively to build presentations professionally, and it's much better than PowerPoint. And although I use Illustrator and InDesign for a living, I will still open Pages or Keynote sometimes for a quick little project -- mainly because iWork is so well integrated into the Mac in a way Adobe and Microsoft apps very much are not.

I can't speak to the hard-core features of Word and Excel. For those who need them, they need them -- but for the rest of us iWork is much more streamlined and smooth to work with.

My big wish, of course, is that Apple would break down and create Windows versions of these apps. Cross-platform collaboration is the #1 reason it ends up being hard to stay within iWork, in my experience anyway.

Yea. This. And then open a 100+ page document on pages which takes seconds or try the same in Word, which will probably crash the program or at least make it suffer for minutes.

I switched to iWorks in 2011 and never looked back. Excel may be nice for companies and people who really need the special functions for work. For students who do complicated math and statistics with it and want to link it to several macros and so on.
But for a normal spreadsheet it's like a Dodge Ram in a soap box race.

Keynote is so much better than anything else on the market.

 

[gbynum]

I'm a spreadsheet user of long standing, from VisiCalc to QuattroPro to Lotus 1-2-3 to Excel and finally to Numbers.

You left out SuperCalc <g>

I'm accustomed to using the basic ISO date format (today is 20211119) in Excel. With Numbers, I've succeeded in getting the extended format (today is 2021-11-19) but cannot get rid of the hyphens. Where are the more sophisticate formatting methods found?

 

[960design]

Where are the more sophisticate formatting methods found?

Easy Way:
Select cell within sheet > Format > Cell > Data Format > Create Custom Format > Type = Date & Time > Drag and drop required structure

More Power:
Insert New Formula > Data & Time

 

[gbynum]

Easy Way:
Select cell within sheet > Format > Cell > Data Format > Create Custom Format > Type = Date & Time > Drag and drop required structure

More Power:
Insert New Formula > Data & Time

Thanks! I'd tried the first, but in an existing imported (Excel) xlsx file; I couldn't figure out how to delete the hyphens that were there. Tried again with a new numbers file, your 1st worked great, will have to figure out what I did wrong before. I haven't tried your "More Power" method, appreciate your sharing knowledge.

I suspect this is much my "old guy" mentality problem. I started simple programming in 1969 in PDP-8 assembly and a little later with 8080 assembly. Having things done for me as by Apple is difficult.

George

 

[960design]

Thanks! I'd tried the first, but in an existing imported (Excel) xlsx file; I couldn't figure out how to delete the hyphens that were there. Tried again with a new numbers file, your 1st worked great, will have to figure out what I did wrong before. I haven't tried your "More Power" method, appreciate your sharing knowledge.

I suspect this is much my "old guy" mentality problem. I started simple programming in 1969 in PDP-8 assembly and a little later with 8080 assembly. Having things done for me as by Apple is difficult.

George

Possibly add a new column, create output to match your requirements using more power method, then hide the original 'excel' column? Happy the first method, sort of, worked.

 

[johnkree]

Do you guys know if it is possible to make a cell behave like a text box? I need to change the text at the bottom of my numbers sheet on a weekly basis. Numbers is awesome for this but one thing: Enter makes me jump to the next cell instead of behaving like Enter in a text box.
I know, I just could press option but I have to do it a lot so I would prefer not to.
Is there a way to make a cell work like a text box so I can write a lot?