Excel files : App that can do incremental search (FAYT) like iTunes

[JFetter]

Hi guys!

I'm new to Mac, and I just bought a MBA for business use!


I love how the search function works for the iTunes Library. It makes it so quick to find whatever you are looking for. I want to hear Beethoven's 3rd symphony? Takes me 3 seconds. Start to type in the search...

beet sym 3

Almost certainly, the only songs left showing, will be different versions of Beethoven's 3rd Symphony.


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I'm looking for an app that can do this while viewing excel (XLS) files. For my job, I'm going to have my laptop with me with a HUGE list of our entire inventory. This file has useful information, like what our sale price is, to the customer.

What I would really like, is to start typing into a search bar, and it literally takes all the the other files out of view that don't match the criteria...just as in iTunes. That would make it so easy on the eyes, to find parts without all the clutter on the screen.

So if I know a part number for a part just used, but I need to find the price, I would go to the search bar and type for instance, 2024. And the only rows left showing would contain '2024' somewhere in their data. (Likely only a few items would contain this info, so it would be super easy to find what I'm after)

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The closest I've found so far is iWork. But that simply shows the results in a window at the bottom of the screen. To see more info, you still have to click on each result, and it takes you to the entry.

I've also tried Libreoffice and openoffice.

 

[GGJstudios]

If I understand your question, I believe what you're looking for is filtering. Read about it in the Excel Help files.

 

[JFetter]

Yes, filtering is a good way to put it.

The problem is, I need a QUICK way to use filtering. And the filter criteria will constantly be changing.

Example: I just finished and I'm on the job site. I used 4 different parts and I need to see our current charge price for each part.

Ideally, there would be a search bar at the top of the app. I begin by typing the part number, or even a part description. And without me having to finish typing the full name or number, it starts filtering the XLS table.

So if the part I used was 'pressure' related, I would start typing p-r-e-s and bingo, the table is filtered to only items with 'pres' in the row. If I wanted to really narrow it down I could type 'low pres', and therefore narrow it down to just "low pressure" parts.


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It seems the built in filters for most excel-type programs, require much more time and effort than would be practical for me. (because every workday I may used 5-20 different filter criteria to find parts)

Thanks

 

[exegete77]

You might be able to do something like that with VBA. Sometimes VBA is not as fast as the built in functions, but in this case it would seem to be much faster. Perhaps check with Mr Excel or VBA Express.