“When I last reviewed Numbers for OS X, it was the first release of the ‘new’ Numbers [3.0], and it came with a slew of changes—both good and bad—to the interface and feature set,” Rob Griffiths writes for Macworld.
“Now, two years on, Numbers has gained 0.6.1 version numbers, as well as some new features and changes to its interface,” Griffiths writes. “It’s also a much stronger collaboration tool now, and you can work on spreadsheets on OS X, iOS, and the web.”
“AppleScript support and the customizable toolbar improve the app’s usability, and performance with large data sets has gotten much better. The interface is generally pleasant, and many of the provided templates are genuinely useful and well designed,” Griffiths writes. “Of course, if you work across iOS, OS X, and the web, Numbers’ sharing features can’t be beat.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Numbers is now the only spreadsheet application we use. It’s rock-solid reliable and more intuitive and less bloated than Excel. Sharing between Macs, iPhones, and iPads is a breeze.
If only it had one feature that is missing: Remove duplicates with one click. The only reason I have to use Excel from time to time. And I do hate it!
I’m not an Excel user, but work with many analysts who are. They tell me that biggest omission in Numbers is pivot tables. Not sure what they are, but I hear this all the time.
I used Excel for years, and had no need for pivot tables. However, my wife uses them all the time in her job, and tells me that they’re essential for her type of data analysis. It would seem that the lack of this feature is a problem for many spreadsheet users, and something that Apple needs to fix.
I like Excel. It was originally a Mac program and nothing else comes close to it for spreadsheet work. The best Numbers still isn’t in the same league.
I hate to agree with you here, but it’s true. As much as I try to like and work with Numbers, Excel is just superior and more familiar. I really want Numbers to be more feature packed because Continuity (the ability to pick up where you left off on other devices) is soooooo awesome. My sincere hope is Apple steps up their Works products game in a serious way because if MS ever was able to offer Continuity-like features in Office, it would be game over and nobody would take Apple productivity apps seriously as a contender again. Maybe I’m being too negative, but Numbers in particular needs to be better and more full featured than it is. This version may be the best version ever…but it isn’t as useful as Excel. Pages and Keynote don’t suffer the same negative comparison versus MS products as Numbers does to Excel.
Numbers is god awful. Ditsy program, jumping cursors and weird syntax. It fits right in with the MAC Pro–another piece of engineering genius.
I hate it and have had to stop dealing with the latest creation by the Apple nerds.
Am back to Windows.
Numbers is not as “bloated” as Excel only because Numbers lacks the features and options that Excel provides. We cannot import data from Excel into Numbers without losing functionality. Numbers had improved incrementally. In my business Excel is the only spreadsheet used.
Numbers is garbage. Even Google Sheets are better then Numbers.. when someone sends me a number files, i cringe…
fisher price… thats what it reminds me of..
simple pleasures for simple minds I suppose.
Excel has a significant learning curve. Not everyone is able or willing to develop the skills required to master Excel.
You can say the same thing about the bicycle.
Maybe one shouldn’t own a computer or seek technical employment if one is unwilling to learn software, especially the useful softwares that are de facto standards in most industries like Excel and Word. They are not hard to use even if you choose not to use all the power they offer.
Completely agree with your evaluation. Garbage in and you can’t get it out. I like toggle switches. I don’t like techies trying to do my thinking. They can’t and I hate their gymnastics.
Pivot tables….
period….
Excel all the way for me. Nothing has come along yet that can touch it.
import massive amounts of data from multiple data sources and quickly make sense of it all using Power Pivot.
Interesting. I has assumed Numbers had joined the myriad of other products that Apple had forgotten about…