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Numbers - Autofill Date when entering data?

E

electronique

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 27, 2008
379
2
Hi.. Simple Numbers questions.

If I have a simple form, with Column A being Date, Column B being Subject and C being description..

I want column A to be Auto-filled with todays date, when I am entering data into column B..

Any ideas how I do this?
 
I finally bit the bullet and bought Numbers just so I could answer this...

For some reason I can't paste the formula Itself from Numbers but basically in the cell you want the date start a formula with =, then choose If, then isblank, then touch the cell that would have the subject, then for true go to the ABC keyboard, hit done to give it a blank value and then for false use the today formula. Then save by touching the tick mark, then touch the cell so it has the options come up, press Fill and then drag the handle down the column as far down as you want.
 
jaseone said:
I finally bit the bullet and bought Numbers just so I could answer this...

For some reason I can't paste the formula Itself from Numbers but basically in the cell you want the date start a formula with =, then choose If, then isblank, then touch the cell that would have the subject, then for true go to the ABC keyboard, hit done to give it a blank value and then for false use the today formula. Then save by touching the tick mark, then touch the cell so it has the options come up, press Fill and then drag the handle down the column as far down as you want.
Click to expand...

Brilliant... Absolutely brilliant.
Thanks a heap..

I've actually never work with formulas in spreadsheets before.. This has given me a taste of what's possible.. Thanks again

Now to find out how to add that formula to each new row I add, when needed.
 
electronique said:
Brilliant... Absolutely brilliant.
Thanks a heap..

I've actually never work with formulas in spreadsheets before.. This has given me a taste of what's possible.. Thanks again

Now to find out how to add that formula to each new row I add, when needed.
Click to expand...

Check "Help", it will tell you how to add the formula to each new row.
 
electronique said:
Brilliant... Absolutely brilliant.
Thanks a heap..

I've actually never work with formulas in spreadsheets before.. This has given me a taste of what's possible.. Thanks again

Now to find out how to add that formula to each new row I add, when needed.
Click to expand...

That was the latter part of my instructions. ;)
 
Jaseone

Thanks for your reply this was my question too. Nonetheless I realized that each time I add a new record to the form, all dates (including those of previous records) change to today's date.

My question is: is it possible to keep the date/time that was automatically entered when the data was filled in, to remain stable for each separate entry and not change (in other words I need it to appear on the spreadsheet table as the exact time that the data on this particular row were entered and stay there as a permanent "proof" of the exact time that this particular entry occurred.

Is it possible?

I notice that this is a very old discussion, I hope everyone is ok and someone can reply

Thanks to all!
 
I would also much apreciate such a feature. A kind of time stamp or date picker or so. However, afaik, there isn't such thing. I filed a feature request a while ago but I have little hope that it will actually come alive.
 
KostasProb said:
Jaseone

Thanks for your reply this was my question too. Nonetheless I realized that each time I add a new record to the form, all dates (including those of previous records) change to today's date.

My question is: is it possible to keep the date/time that was automatically entered when the data was filled in, to remain stable for each separate entry and not change (in other words I need it to appear on the spreadsheet table as the exact time that the data on this particular row were entered and stay there as a permanent "proof" of the exact time that this particular entry occurred.

Is it possible?

I notice that this is a very old discussion, I hope everyone is ok and someone can reply

Thanks to all!
Click to expand...

Actually you can try something, I just don't have the English version of Numbers at hand.
One of the formula's in the Text category should be called something like PLAIN.TEXT.
Your formula in column A should then read:

IF(B1>"";PLAIN.TEXT(TODAY);"")

TODAY returning a number (right aligned by default), PLAIN.TEXT returns a text (left aligned by default).
This should be an indication for you to see it's working.

As for the other part of the problem: in Numbers, you can't make a formula automatically pop up in an empty A cell once there is a content in a B cell next to it. This is however doable in Excel via VisualBasic. So you should take Jaseone's latter part and copy the formula in the A column downward.

Indeed, very sad to see how little progress is made in Numbers during the past 4 years...


EDIT: sorry, my idea doesn't work either.
 
Last edited:
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