Apple iWorks Numbers is a rather different animal when it comes to tables. You would think that a spreadsheet is a spreadsheet, but Apple has decided to show just how different a spreasheet can be. Come with me as I show you some of the weirder aspects of Numbers.
Don’t get me wrong. I love Numbers, but coming from an Excel/OO Calc background I was just not ready for the re-imagining of a classic spreadsheet program. What’s the unusual item in Numbers? You can have more than one table in a sheet. In other words a sheet can have more than one table.
This is not the way I am used to thinking about spreadsheets. Now I can be more of a designer of my sheets. Let’s face it, a Numbers spreadsheet can be gorgeous. The tables that can have a little pre-design done to them. In the following shot is all of the template tables you can start with.
This is Numbers ‘09 that I am talking about. So How do we add more than one table to a sheet in Numbers? That’s the interesting part. Make sure that you have the sheet selected in the sheets sidebar. Then choose Insert >> Table>> the table style you want to add. It will add it below the last table. It also places it on the new sheet on the top layers. Yep, that’s right. Numbers is a spreadsheet in which the tables are objects and have a Z axis order.
I decided to give Numbers a try. I built a very simple checklist to help me when I am packing for those Training classes in other cities. This is a Form that will help me remember what to pack for my trips. Yes, I know this is all horribly anal of me, but this is something I need. I used the checklist Table, and added an extra column. I shrunk the middle column. Here is a screen shot of an early prototype
Not really all that hard, but it does give you some idea of what you can do by adding more than one table on a sheet. Oh, I checked you can refer to cells on a different table on the same sheet in your formulas. Pretty cool.
Do you use Numbers? Share with us in the Comments section Below.
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