Formulate your future with Numbers 1 The Function button 2 Quick calculations 3 Filter a checklist 4 Quickly add cells 5 Copy from old versions
Go beyond built-in templates and gain skills that keep you one step ahead
Dig deeper into Apple’s spreadsheet app by going beyond its templates. Whether you need to track your budget, monitor investments, or plan a project, these quick tips will get you started. If you’re an ex Excel user and miss its AutoSum function, don’t worry: Numbers offers a versatile alternative. Select a series of cells and choose one of the common functions from the toolbar’s Function button. Numbers will insert the result of the function’s calculation in the nearest empty cell, either above or to the side of the selection you made. Numbers’ Quick Calculation bar appears at the foot of the window when a range of cells is selected, giving at-a-glance calculations for that selection (sum, average and so on), which you can drag to a table cell to keep around. It is not limited to default functions — click the gear button on the right to edit what’s available here. Numbers makes for a great organizer, too: Use it to create an easily updated checklist. Write your to-do list down one column and then add a cell with a data format of “Checkbox” next to each item in the list. In the Sort and Filter Inspector, filter the table by the checkbox column. Choose a filtering rule to match text that is “False.” Now, as you check items off the list, they’ll disappear from view. Numbers has many keyboard shortcuts, but this is arguably the handiest: To add a column or row next to a highlighted cell, hold down Opt and press the arrow key that corresponds to the direction where you want to add a row or column. No more messing around with menus! To recover a deleted table or sheet, choose File > Revert To >
Browse All Versions. Scroll back to the version with the elements you want to retrieve, select them and then choose Edit > Copy. In the current spreadsheet (on the left), click where you want to place the content, then choose Edit > Paste. To copy a cell’s formatting and not its value, press Cmd+Opt+C, and paste to another cell with Cmd+Opt+V.
6 Take visual stock
Conditional highlighting works great when using Stock functions. The following formula, when added to a cell, displays the percentage change in Apple’s stock price compared to its close yesterday: =STOCK ("AAPL", percent change) With this cell selected, go to the Format inspector’s Cells tab and click the Conditional Highlighting button. In the pane that appears, set a rule to change the cell’s background color to red if its value is less than zero (a fall in the share price). Add a second rule to change the background to green if the value is greater than zero (a rise in the share price).
7 Relative or absolute
If a formula contains a reference to another cell, copying it to another cell updates the reference relative to its new position. To maintain a cell reference, prefix it with a dollar sign ($) when typing a formula to designate it “absolute.” Or, double-click a cell to edit its existing formula, click the small disclosure triangle next to the cell reference, and choose whether to maintain the row, column, or both.