Service Pack 1 for Mac Office 2008

Macworld has an article detailing Service Pack 1 for Mac Office 2008. This service pack is supposed to improve performance and stability, as well fixing other small bugs. Specific improvements to Excel include:

. . . restores chart formatting options available in previous versions of Office and improves the spreadsheet program’s ability to alert you to potential compatibility issues when you save the workbook in a file format compatible with previous versions of Excel (including Excel for Windows). Changes made when you move or resize the formula bar will now be retained. Microsoft also improved support for secondary displays.

I fired up Office last night and checked for updates, but none were found. I’m not sure if they are slowly rolling this out through automatic update, or maybe they are requiring early adopters to download the Service Pack manually for right now.

Alternatively, some people are experiencing problems after they install the Service Pack, such as extended periods of CPU usage. Vincent Noel, the author of the "Bloody Fingers" blog, tracked the problem down to Spotlight attempting to index areas where the Service Pack was installed.

So, if you are an Excel power user, you may want to go ahead and download this Service Pack, otherwise, you may want to give Microsoft a little time to work the bugs out.

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Guide to Writing Queries in Spotlight

Spotlight is awesome, especially under Leopard.  Kirk McElhearn, writing for Macworld, has written a nice tutorial on how to get better results from your spotlight queries.

Highly recommended.

Create good queries in Spotlight

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Macworld: Excel for Mac 2008 vs. Numbers ‘08

Rob Griffiths, writing in Macworld, has a side be side comparison of Excel 2008 and Numbers ‘08. He created the same project - a sales-tracking spreadsheet - in each program, in order to test their individual strengths and weaknesses.

In the end, he found Excel to be superior to Numbers in most aspects, with the exception of the ablilty to create attractive layouts in Numbers.

In general, I found it much simpler to work with Excel in all phases of my sample project. Although Numbers has some stunning templates, its shortcomings make it more difficult to use when you leave template-land. Those failings include its inability to simply show a formula’s variables as you enter it; its lack of keyboard support in selecting ranges when you’re entering formulas; its lack of custom number and date formats; and its limited conditional formatting abilities. There’s no doubt that I can create a prettier spreadsheet in Numbers, but Excel offers more formulas, features, and tools to help with actually building the spreadsheet.

I agree that for most power users, Excel is the way to go for day to day “functional” spreadsheet use. I also agree that Numbers is the way to go if you wish to present your data in the most appealing manner.

Strangely, Macworld only rated Excel 2008 three mice, while giving Numbers ‘08 three and a half mice. Normally, I would think this was due to the natural variance of reviewers opinions, but in this case Mr. Griffiths was the reviewer each time!

Regardless, I think it is important to remember that Numbers ‘08 is the “version 1″ software, whereas Excel has been under constant development for many years. Numbers ‘08 does an adequate job for what it is: a consumer grade spreadsheet program.

Tags: apple, excel, mac, macworld, numbers, osx

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Tip: How To Use The Index Function To Transpose Data In Numbers

I just found this great Numbers tip on Fury&Frost.com:

You can use the INDEX() Function to transpose data to another table.

Read the post for a full explanation, but use the following function to get the results shown in the screen shot above:

=INDEX(Prefs::$A$1:$E$15,COLUMN(),ROW())

Good one!

Tags: apple, iwork, numbers, osx, Tips

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Screen Cast: How To Place An Image Behind A Table

One of the unique features of Numbers is the ability to place an image in a cell, or behind a group of cells. In the case of the latter, it can be a little confusing to figure out how to accomplish this trick.

I put together a short screen cast demonstrating how to place an image behind a table in Numbers. I also demonstrate the different options available to display your image: Scale to Fit, Scale to Fill, Stretch, Original Size, and Tile.

You can watch the video below:

Tags: numbers, screen cast, Tips

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Waterfall Charts in Numbers

Forum member Allmec has posted a cool example of how to create waterfall charts in Numbers.

You can check out his post on the Numbers Template Forums.

Tags: apple, Charts, numbers, waterfall chart

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Home Electronics Cost Calculator Template

How much is all the electrically powered junk around your house really costing you? Remember that you keep paying for appliances after you buy them through the energy they consume.

You can use a cool tool called the Kill-A-Watt to find out exactly how much electricity your appliances are using, and how much they are costing to operate.

Another method is to use this template (adapted from an Excel sheet here) to roughly calculate your energy consumption and costs.

Usage:

Plug in your cost per kilowatt-hour (you should be able to find this on your utility bill). According to to information I found on this page, the average cost per kilowatt-hour in the US is $0.115.

Then, enter the name of your appliances in the lower table, with their watts used per hour. If you can’t get the information from the appliance’s manual, you can get an approximate value from this online guide.

Next, enter the number of hours per day you use each item.

The sheet will then calculate the cost per year to operate the appliance.

Enjoy!

Download: Home Electronics Cost Calculator Template for iWork Numbers

Tags: Home, Templates

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Tip: Rotating Text

One of the most frequently asked questions on the Apple Numbers Discussion forums is how to rotate text (for instance, make the text vertical). This is a common function in Excel, but unfortunately, it is not available in Numbers ‘08.

However, while you cannot rotate text in-cell, you can use a hack that will give you the same visual experience when the document is printed.

As a first on Numbers Templates, I recorded a short video demonstrating how to rotate a text box. It was a fairly easy process to create, so if the reaction is positive, I will record and share more tutorials.

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Template: Household Monthly Budget

I found this detailed, single page, household budget template for Numbers on the iwork templates blog. The author states that it was converted from an Excel file, so it doesn’t display a lot of the Numbers formating flash. Still, if you are looking for a simple budget, this template may be just what you are looking for.

Tags: Home, iwork, numbers, Personal Finance, Templates

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Numbers Review On Seeking Alpha

Carl Howe has written a nice review on Numbers for the Seeking Alpha web site.  He calls it "Innovative" and "User-Friendly".

You can find the full review here

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