Macintosh iWork ‘08 Numbers is a Real Pain
May 23, 2008 – 5:16 pmUsually I post articles that describe how to get around a problem that I had, but this is just about how frustrated I am with Apple’s Numbers, part of the iWork ‘08 suite.
Background
I use a Mac because it is much more stable than Windows. Also, the open source community is well plugged into working with Macintosh, from what I can tell.
I usually don’t buy software, because in most cases a group of people have come up with a better, free and open source, solution.
I decided to shell out the $79 (which is a bargin) for Apple’s iWork ‘08 because I hate using Microsoft Word for Mac, and I am not too fond of NeoOffice (I like the native feel of the iWork’s GUI, which is also found in software like OmniGraffle and Navicat). As many others have pointed out, Keynote is great, and Pages is pretty good.
Why am I frustrated
I am frustrated because Numbers is slow and lacking in functionality. I understand that it is only at Version 1.0.2 (at the time of this writing), but I still want more.
I am not trying to do anything fancy, just paste a few hundred cells of data and get some graphs. Every time I try to do something with a graph, my CPU usage skyrockets and it takes me about 5 minutes to do something as simple as add another column of data to a chart.
I can live without some of the functionality found in Excel, because I don’t need most of the fancy statistical analysis every day. What I do need is for Numbers to do what it can, well.
My recommendation to the developers (I know that they read this site nearly every day… [sarcasm]) is to tone down the CPU heavy graphical data selection, and just give me a text or simple menu way of manipulating graphs and charts. Some added flexability with chart making would also greatly enhance the Numbers experience. For example, why is it so hard to get x-axis labels? And why, if I do it wrong the first time, must I re-create the chart from scratch to get it to work properly?
At this stage in its life, Numbers seems to be working against the current Mac mantra: “Easy and intuitive”.
Begging the Developers
Please, if you can hear me, fix Numbers so that I can use it without pulling out my hair. Until then, I will be running Software Update every hour…. hoping…
How about you? If you have this problem, please let me know about it so that I can feel better.
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16 Responses to “Macintosh iWork ‘08 Numbers is a Real Pain”
Exactly. There is something really wrong with Numbers. Maybe some architectural problems. For example adding large number of items into table takes eternity (=really long time). I have thought that maybe Numbers tries to format, check, set inspectors and calculate all cells one by one, instead of doing only necessary things.
Functionality is enough for me, but speed… I can’t speak of speed with that application.
By Ari on Jun 12, 2008
Whoo boy, Numbers is beyond slow. I have a 2.4 gig Intel processor with 2 megs of RAM and it literally takes as much as a minute or even more to change a number in a cell. Its intolerable. As much as I hate excell I guess I’ll have to go back to it. Seems like Apple should address this problem.
By Hal Ham on Aug 4, 2008
and I can’t even set a page break where I want it! Have to pad with blank rows.
By david Barnard on Aug 23, 2008
I thought apple programs were user friendly, it is far from that. I am having a problem changing axis and series labels in graphs (Iworks numbers)
By Sunil Haridass on Sep 2, 2008
I’ve made my own budget template and when I use it to create a document (for example My Budget 2008) I’d like to be able to have some cells in my document reference the cells in the template, and update when I make changes to the template, instead of having to change both the template and the document whenever the budget numbers need to be adjusted. I can do this with Excel, but with Numbers, the new document based on the template becomes completely divorced from it upon creation.
By Diane Lamarche on Sep 6, 2008
I agree with the problem with x-axis labels, I still cant get it to work and end up manually writing them in – so any idea how to do it?
By Joe Barrett on Sep 9, 2008
I wish I did know how to change them, Joe. That is one of the major problems, since x-axis labels are so frequently used/changed.
By Jake D on Oct 6, 2008
Don’t use iWork like Excel. If you are creating a chart create a separate spreadsheet for it and put the headers and labels in the topmost (gray) row and leftmost column. Works great. Numbers is a spreadsheet/page layout program. It’s not a hard core spreadsheet program. That said you can create some pretty well presented data with it.
By Tim L on Oct 10, 2008
I don’t know what most of you are talking about.
If it takes over a minute to change data in a cell, then there is something wrong with your Mac (hardware wise). I’ve designed complex multi-table models in Numbers with no speed issues.
Page-breaks in Numbers? That is not the way one is supposed to think about page composition in Numbers. If you start your page design in print view mode, then you will be able to present your data however you like. Remember, you are working with individual tables that float on the page, not a giant table that gets split-up amongst pages.
The charting is easy, if you work with the software, rather than against it. Data should be organized in a separate table, with header cells (as suggested earlier by Tim), then the chart created from that. X-axis labels will work just fine. The data in the table can be referenced from another table, so as not to have to input redundant data.
You cannot use Numbers to its fullest if you are THINKING in MS Excel — You will only get very frustrated. This application works quite differently than Excel does. I recommend to any veterans of Excel, that they disconnect, and read the tutorials, help screens and watch the demo’s at Apple’s website : http://www.apple.com/iwork/numbers/
I do suggest that Apple increases the feature set in the future, to offer some of the more advanced aspects of Excel (macro’s, protection, external data queries). But for now, it is a supremely refreshing and welcome edition to the world of spreadsheet applications.
By Joe F on Nov 17, 2008
I’ve been using iWork 08 for a while now. No real problems until I went to create a graph in Numbers. This has got to be the worst experience I have ever had with a mac. Why can’t I input my own values on the axis? Seriously, this is the worst application I have ever seen. Why can’t I add a series, or do a bar graph and a line graph together? Why did I have to pay money for this? Not cool, not cool at all….
By Aaron N on Jun 7, 2009
Also, working with graphs in Pages is very easy!! Strange but true. I experienced zero drain on the CPU and I was able to make them look great. The best part….changing labels is easy. Adding text boxes is also very easy. Pages is the experience one would expect to have with a Mac product. Numbers is a moral draining waste of money.
By Aaron N on Jun 7, 2009
I am trying to make a graph in numbers-I have done one and don’t have a clue how I did it. Any new graphs I try and make just won’t insert any data. I use a multitude of different spreadsheet software every day with no problems but this version is terrible.
By claire on Jun 21, 2009
I found this forum when looking for some answers to the problems I am having with Numbers. I admit I am used to excel, but I still expect to be able to do ordinary things without undue problems.
Problem 1 – Adding a Title that required more than one line.
Problem 2 – Naming axes
Problem 3 – The most irritating – I can work around the others – pasting into Pages so that it looks the same as I have arranged it in Numbers. E.g; I have a key which sits along side the graph. it can be moved in Numbers and placed wherever I want it. I can also then copy and paste that graph within Numbers and it is fine. When I paste it to Pages it places the key below the graph and I can’t move it, or separate it from the graph. Ungroup is not available.
By Dawn C on Jun 28, 2009
+1 to most of the comments above, except that of Joe F. I love the Mac & OS X, but iWork is awfully eccentric and peculiar in its limitations. It’s very frustrating to try to get anything significant done in the application.
Reminds me of those primitive apps that almost worked in the early days of CPM and later MS-DOS. They would do some things, but not a whole set of things so that you could really get work done. Hacking an overlay file so that I could print a document to an Epson dot-matrix in CPM WordStar is not one of my most pleasant memories. Hmm…that’s nearly 30 years ago now…still waiting for this industry to mature….
It seems that we have taken several steps backwards with iWork and with MS Office 2007 and 2008 in terms of usability. Go figure…
By Geo D on Jul 26, 2009
I had the exact same problem with poor usability and high CPU utilization with charts. I solved it, in my case, by adding a new Sheet to the document, and moving the chart to that sheet. In my case, I can accept having the chart separated from the data. YMMV. Cheers.
By Steve D on Oct 20, 2009
I’ve had iWorks for 2 years. Pages is great, but everytime I’ve tried to use Numbers, the experience is so frustrating that I end up going back to Excel or Appleworks. The app seems to be more concerned with final presentation than ease of use.
By Eric Huckvale on Feb 11, 2010