Numbers: How to Add Info into Cells More Easily? (i.e. addresses and phone numbers) (Magically Populate?)

[HappyDude20]

Hello,

So im creating a spreadsheet in Apple's Numbers application on my MBP and I'm sure there has to be an easier way to do this.

Currently I have a sheet of paper next to my Mac that has dozens of phone numbers and addresses and I would like to get them all into the Numbers spreadsheet but am typing every single one, one by one like a sucker. I'm sure there has to be an easier more efficient way to do this.

It would be awesome if I could just take a picture and the info automagically populate into the cells in the Numbers spreadsheet.

 

[GerritV]

Have you thought of scanning your document to a pdf and then copy/paste the data?
Of course you need a scanner and perhaps an app (Apple Preview, PDF Expert...)

 

[HappyDude20]

Have you thought of scanning your document to a pdf and then copy/paste the data?
Of course you need a scanner and perhaps an app (Apple Preview, PDF Expert...)

I really had not that of that specifically. I knew that there must be apps or services that can help me out along those lines.

you mentioned Apple Preview and PDF Expert.
I do have ScannerPro on my iPhone. If I scan a document using that could I open it in Apple Preview and have Preview extract the words and phone numbers? I’m guessing then I’d simply copy and paste it into my Numbers spreadsheet?

I would ask you the same for PDFExpert but am guessing that costs money.

something like what you mentioned sounds great. I have two dozen sheets of paper with so much information I’d rather not type up.

 

[chino-rican]

You can scan documents using your iPhone straight to your Mac. See the second section of this support page:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209037

 

[HappyDude20]

You can scan documents using your iPhone straight to your Mac. See the second section of this support page:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209037

does scanning documents into preview allow me to then extract text? Would there be a better reason to just import directly into Numbers?

 

[chino-rican]

does scanning documents into preview allow me to then extract text? Would there be a better reason to just import directly into Numbers?

I don't see a reason to go through Preview if you can import them straight into Numbers.

 

[HappyDude20]

I don't see a reason to go through Preview if you can import them straight into Numbers.

So I did just that and Scanned a Document using the direct from iPhone feature. First I did it from the MacOs desktop and then removed the extra step and did it directly from the Numbers app. This does import the scanned document successfully BUT there is no OCR.

In order to remedy this I found a better solution which was to use ScannerPro app on my iPhone which automatically initiates OCR and then I AirDrop the PDF file onto my Mac which allows me to easily and accurately copy and paste all of my info into the Numbers Spreadsheet.

BOOM.

 

[GerritV]

Job well done !