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.