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.

I would like to share a very interesting tip that forum member 5|=vv posted on the Apple boards.

The question posed was:

I was wondering if two columns have the same value can I establish a condition that would underline one column?

Example:
Orig. Price Current Price
$200,000 $250,000
$350,000 $350,000

This is, in fact, not possible currently in Numbers, as the conditional formatting options only allow for comparisons based on static numbers rather that formulas.

5|=vv’s brilliant work around, was to use a a feature that is unique to Numbers: the ability to overly tables. As 5|=vv explains:

In general, the idea is to use a second table containing a formula that can be used to compute the conditional format, an orange colored (read “coloured” in Britian, etc. ) cell background. In this case the formula is an IF() comparing the equality of the two columns in the first table (see the formula bar in the second screenshot). Note that both the text and the background conditional format rules have been set to orange. This causes the “TRUE”s that would otherwise spoil the effect to disappear.

Then, using the “Table Inspector” panel, set the cell background of the first table to “None”. The effect is completed by sending the second table to the back (select the table as a canvas item indicated with square selection handles and use menu item “Arrange”/”Send to Back”) and align the tables with mouse or arrow keys.

So, by doing this:

You get this:

Good work 5|=vv. Now, can you please pick a user name that is easier to type!Â

The original post on the Apple boards can be found here.

If this kind of information interests you, please join 5|=vv, and many others, on our forums.

JaxJason has shared another cool technique on the forums. This time he shows us how to create a “fuel gauge” style chart.

It works by using three pie slices. The middle one is our ‘needle’. By changing the size of the first pie slice and adjusting the third pie slice, we can move the middle one around kind of like a needle.

Just an example of how a little creative thinking might be used to introduce an unconventional method of input.

Thanks Jason, yet again, for showing us something cool we can do with Numbers. You can download the example on the forums.

Note: Since Jason posted this in the forums, please direct all comments / questions there.

Forum member and Numbers guru, JaxJason, has posted a workaround for the lack of Solver support in Numbers. Jason can explain it better than I can, so here is his quote from the forum:

This one is a solver workaround that uses a second table with about 1000 rows to perform a series of iterations. using the difference between the goal your looking for and the results of the last solution from the line above.

I will leave it for you to work and play with instead of giving a full rundown here. I basically just played with the iteration formulas till I found a nice medium that gave me nice results within 1000 rows.

You can change the yellow boxes. It is shooting to set the final principal amount in the second column, to get the payment in that column to the amount you asked for in the yellow payment box.

Hope this helps some people understand how Numbers works. I just liked that I got it to work.

Jason

Great work Jason!

Note: I am disabling comments on this post since any questions or suggestions should be directed to the Solver workaround thread.

Rob Griffiths has a great tip on Macworld.com for placing images behind cells in a Numbers document.

Here’s the secret: in Numbers, any placed grid also has a fill, and it defaults to filling with white. In essence, each grid contains two layers: the bottom “grid” layer is filled with white, and the “cells” on top of that grid may be filled (or not), depending on which style (Blue Headers, Blue Fill, etc.) you choose for that grid.

So to make the cells actually show the image that now resides behind them, you also have to remove the fill from the grid itself. Do that by selecting the grid—click once on the grid to activate it, and then when you can see the row and column headers, click in the “drag” spot above the “1” and to the left of the “A,” as seen in the image at right. When you do that, the row and column headers will vanish, leaving the grid with a selection box around it.

Open the Inspector (if it’s not opened already), switch to the Graphic tab, and set the Fill to None. When you do, you’ll see that the cells in the body of the table are now showing the background image (if you’re using the Loan Comparison template), but the Total Paid row is still white. That’s because those cells are actually set to have a white fill; select the row and use the Graphic Inspector to also set their Fill to None.

This is a great way to beautify your Numbers documents.

You can find the article here.

Source: Macworld.com
Author: Rob Griffiths
Article: Place images behind cells in Numbers

I found an interesting technique a while back on the Juice Analytics site, that works well in Numbers.

The technique uses the REPT Function, to create neat in-cell graphs.

The Numbers manual defines REPT as:

REPT(text, copies)

• text: The text expression to be repeated.
• copies: The number of times text is repeated.

For example: REPT(“x”,10) gives you “xxxxxxxxxx”.

Let’s look at a “real world” example. I want to show quick graphic of Major League Baseball home run leaders through 8/28/2007. I grabbed the stats off the web, then created three columns. The first column was player name, the second was number of home runs year to date, and the third was reserved for my formula. I pasted in my players, and home run numbers, then input my formula.

The formula was, REPT(“[apple symbol]“, number of home runs)

There are a number of symbols that look good in the in-cell charts, the lowercase “o” or “|” for instance.

Another idea, if the number of items you are charting is large, is to only repeat a percentage of the text. For instance:

REPT(text,(copies*.5))

This will reduce the number of repeated text items by half.

You can download an example sheet below.

Download Incell Graph Template for Numbers

Here is a great tip I found on the Apple discussion boards courtesy of Neil Barman.

You can use Numbers to export your address book entries to a comma separated values (csv) file.

Here’s how you do it:

Open Address book, then select the entries you wish to export. Drag them into numbers, on a blank area of the canvas, and a table will automatically be created. By default, the following fields are displayed: Last Name, First Name, Phone and Email. The other address book fields are present, but hidden. To have all fields display, choose the Unhide All Columns from the Table menu.

You can then select Export from the File menu, and choose a csv format that will be suitable for import into another application.

Numbers user Marcus Wilhoit was the first person that I came across describing using AppleScript’s GUI support for user interface (UI) scripting, to compensate for the lack of AppleScript support in Numbers ’08.

He describes it this post on Apple Discussions forum:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1090948&tstart=0

Basically, the method allows a user to interact with the Numbers application by scripting commands that a user would normally give via the mouse or keyboard. For instance, take a look at this bit of AppleScript:

tell application “Numbers”
activate
end tell
tell application “System Events”
tell process “Numbers”
tell menu bar 1
tell menu bar item “Edit”
tell menu “Edit”
click menu item “Paste”
end tell
end tell
end tell
end tell
end tell
return true

This tells the OS to launch Numbers, bring the program into focus, click edit from the menu bar, and then paste from the menu bar.

You can script virtually any GUI element. I think this allows for some much needed options on the Numbers automation front. You can find documentation on AppleScript GUI Scripting here:

http://www.apple.com/applescript/uiscripting/index.html

I hope to create some projects using this methodology in the future, and it also gives me a reason to learn AppleScript! If you are interested in pushing Numbers to its limits and beyond, be sure to check out Marcus’s post.

Marcus also shared via e-mail that he was working on some new tools using this process. Keep up the good work!

NEW VERSION ADDED 8/23/2007

One of the most glaring missing features of Apple iWork Numbers ’08 is the ability to get data into the sheet from outside sources. A very common need is to pull in stock quotes, then manipulate the data. While, I have not found a way to do it directly, I have developed a temporary method until Apple fixes this is later versions.

***Introduction***
The fix involves using a predefined stock table, a specifically formated Yahoo Finance url, and an Automator workflow that takes the url and retrieves a comma separated file, that is then opened in Numbers. Got that?

***File Content***
The zip file at the end of the post contains four two files:

* Read Me.rtf – This contains instructions similar to what you are now reading.
* Get-Quotes.app – A ready to run Automator app.
* Get-Quotes.workflow – The Automator workflow, in case you want to modify it.
* Stock Quotes.numbers – The sheet into which you will enter your data.

***Usage***
***Edited 8/23/2007***

1) Enter up to 15 symbols in the stock table.
2) The URL will build dynamically.
3) Click on the URL, which will open in your default browser.
4) Tell your browser to open the CSV file with Numbers, if it is not your default program.
5) Copy the resulting table into your stock table, and clean up any formatting.
6) Close the new window.

Note: If you want to learn more about the Yahoo url format, check out this awesome resource.

You are free to play around with this however you wish. However, since I just started the blog, I would appreciate you linking back to this article if you find it helpful.

Also, I want to keep the content fresh, so if you have any Numbers templates, tips or tricks you would like to share, drop me a line at: contact [at] numberstemplates.com

* Update 8/21/2007: Added pause to Automator action before deleting csv file. Thanks Timo!
* Update 8/23/2007: Made url clickable, Automator action no longer necessary.

Download Get Stock Quotes Template