Getting started with Numbers

Chapter 1

Fundamentals

Numbers is part of a group of three applications called Pages, Numbers and Keynote. It is a free small suite inside the Mac. Use Pages for word processing, Numbers for spreadsheet and Keynote for slide presentations.

1.1 Startup

Figure 1.1 shows the spreadsheet icon that enables you to carry on the application.

Figure 1.1: The green Numbers icon

Click on the spreadsheet icon.

New Document / Blank

Numbers displays the spreadsheet working environment. Figure 1.2 shows the rows and columns and the properties panel on the right, that enables you to change the table, cell, text, and layout settings. The application also has a menu and a toolbar that can be customized.

Figure 1.2: The working environment

If the right panel does not appear, click on the Format icon that looks like a small paintbrush. If you want to add more icons to the toolbar, right-click and choose Customise Toolbar. A window will pop up with additional icons that you can select from the toolbar.

The file you are working in may have several tabs, called sheets or worksheets. Each one of them has rows and columns.

1.1.1 Managing rows and columns

As soon as you open Numbers, you realize that the number of rows displayed is limited to 22 and 7 columns up to column G. If you want to add rows or columns, click on the Table tab in the right panel, then enter values in the Rows and Columns fields.

The limit is one million rows and one thousand columns (up to column ALL) per sheet.

To quickly add a new row, click on the = sign surrounded by a circle at the bottom of the table.

To quickly add a column, click on the round II sign after the last column.

To quickly add rows and columns, move the icon placed after the last row and after the last column.

To quickly decrease or increase the size of all the cells in a sheet, click on A for increase or A for decrease besides Table Font Size in the Table tab.

Figure 1.3 summarizes the possible actions.

Figure 1.3 : Rows and columns management

1.1.2 Equalizing rows or columns size

In a spreadsheet, one of the most common operations is to automatically equalize the width of a group of columns or the height of a group of