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MacGurl111

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 4, 2010
1,284
288
Seattle
Before I enter some heavy data into Numbers, I want to ask a question. Has anyone had any kind of trouble sending it to another person who does not have "Numbers?" What about printing out the sheet? I've read some reviews through the App Store for Mac and that made me nervous.
I'm thinking about downloading Office for Mac for 140.00 just for peace of mind.
Any thoughts?
Thank you for your time. :eek:
 

Tumbleweed666

macrumors 68000
Mar 20, 2009
1,761
141
Near London, UK.
They would need to have Numbers to do something with the native Numbers file.
You can save a Numbers file in excel format and send them that (assuming they have Excel), but unless it's very simple data and formulae then there might be features that cannot be translated.
If your main use is sending the data to others who have Excel, if it's anything more than very basic tables and charts then you should use Excel. However, are you sure they have it?
 

MacGurl111

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 4, 2010
1,284
288
Seattle
They would need to have Numbers to do something with the native Numbers file.
You can save a Numbers file in excel format and send them that (assuming they have Excel), but unless it's very simple data and formulae then there might be features that cannot be translated.
If your main use is sending the data to others who have Excel, if it's anything more than very basic tables and charts then you should use Excel. However, are you sure they have it?

Thank you for your response!
I know my church has Excel for sure. I was there earlier. They are using PCs/excels to enter data. (Older computers).
I need to enter data for them and it's a lot of information. Thank you for answering, I think it is best I go with Excel, just to be safe.
 

Gregg2

macrumors 604
May 22, 2008
7,167
1,161
Milwaukee, WI
I think the free Libre Office will open Numbers files. I've used it to open AppleWorks files. Now the formatting might not be perfect...
 

mtngoatjoe

macrumors 6502
Jun 10, 2008
270
54
If you're just entering data, then Numbers will work fine. You (or they) coudl just open the Excel file you export, and copy and paste into their master file. Or, if you're maintaining the master file and they just need a report, then you could send them a PDF.

The great thing about Numbers is that you can work on it with a Mac, PC, iPhone, or iPad.
 

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
28,198
12,362
If you just want "compatibility" with Excel, you can use Numbers or LibreOffice. Keep the formatting simple, and everything else should "go through" ok.

Also, there's a lightweight spreadsheet app out there that you also might consider, called "Tables". I prefer it to ALL of the "heavyweight" apps. And it can export to Excel, Open Document Format, pdf, and comma-separated values.
 

mtngoatjoe

macrumors 6502
Jun 10, 2008
270
54
If you're just entering data, then Numbers will work fine. You (or they) coudl just open the Excel file you export, and copy and paste into their master file. Or, if you're maintaining the master file and they just need a report, then you could send them a PDF.

The great thing about Numbers is that you can work on it with a Mac, PC, iPhone, or iPad.

I should also mention that I think Numbers is MUCH better at formatting data so it looks good for presentations. You can have multiple tables on a sheet, and the tables can even overlap each other, making it very flexible for summarizing data. For complex analysis, I think Excel is better, but most people simply use Excel to track and display simple data (and for that, Numbers is better). YMMV.
 

snberk103

macrumors 603
Oct 22, 2007
5,503
91
An Island in the Salish Sea
If you really want to use Numbers, just try a small test file. I've exchanged data with Excel users generally with no issues. The one place that I have had issues is with dates so make sure that you format your dates the same way as the Excel master file. For example... if the Church Excel file is expecting YY-MM-DD and you send your data in to them as DD-MM-YY - well you can see the problem. The other issue is general text that looks like a date to Excel when importing. For example - I was sending my bookkeeping info to my accountant, and the account numbers (which had dashes in them) looked like dates to Excel. This might happen whether you are using Excel or Numbers... so import a couple of small test files a broad range of the kind of data you will exchanging - and double check to make sure it's imported correctly.

Luck.
 
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