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Apple’s new Numbers spreadsheet application (part of iWork ’08 US$79) is “Apple doing what Apple does best: improving, refining, and concentrating on user experience,” Phil Windley blogs for ZDNet.
“The most obvious change is evident when you start Numbers up: there’s no ever expanding grid of cells. Instead you have a workspace (called a ‘sheet’) in which you can create tables. Each table is it’s own spreadsheet, expandable, formatable, and movable. You can put as many tables (and associated charts) on a sheet as you like. Each file can have multiple sheets,” Windley reports.
“Another change seems kind of obvious once you think about it: tables, rows and columns can all have names. You can refer to them in formulas by name,” Windley reports. “Lots of little goodies are scattered throughout the product… [and] Maybe the best part: I couldn’t find a pivot-table anywhere.”
“Apple had the luxury of starting with a blank slate and picking the things they liked from Excel while innovating where they saw the opportunity. I think the result is much more usable than Excel,” Windley reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Many Mac users — the majority, we believe — think they need Office, but really don’t. Give Apple’s free 30-day iWork ’08 trial a try and see for yourself.
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