Numbers for iPad
All of the number-crunching capabilities of a full-powered spreadsheet application for a PC or Mac computer, like Numbers for Mac or Microsoft Excel for PC or Mac, is now available on the iPad using the extremely robust Numbers for iPad app.
Numbers for iPad was designed from the ground up to work with the tablet device’s touch screen, making navigation around individual spreadsheets, as well as access to program commands and menu icons, extremely simple and intuitive using your fingers.
Numbers for iPad allows you to create and modify tables, plus utilize complex numerical calculations with ease (as shown in Figure 5). With a few taps of the screen, you can create colorful and fully customizable graphics and charts, which can then be cut, copied, and pasted into Pages documents or Keynote presentations in seconds.
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Figure 5 Numbers is an advanced spreadsheet application.
As you do word processing with Pages, the virtual on-screen keyboard replicates a traditional computer keyboard. When using Numbers, however, the virtual keyboard on the bottom of the iPad screen changes, based on the type of data entry you’re performing. When entering numbers, for example, a numeric, calculator-style keyboard appears at the bottom of the screen. If you’re entering formulas, dates or text, the virtual keyboard changes accordingly (as shown in Figure 6).
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Figure 6 The virtual keyboard automatically adapts based on the type of data you’re entering.
Just like any other spreadsheet application, Numbers for iPad has a built-in calculation engine—in this case, providing more than 250 functions, each of which has an instant on-screen help feature associated with it.
Numbers for iPad allows you to open, view, and modify spreadsheets created with Numbers or Excel. You can also export the spreadsheet files you create or edit using Numbers for iPad to work flawlessly with Numbers (for Mac) or Microsoft Excel (for PC or Mac), or you can export a spreadsheet file as a PDF document. Thus, you have full compatibility with both Macs and PCs, plus have the ability to easily share Numbers files with others.
If you plan to create a spreadsheet using Numbers for iPad, you can start from scratch, or use one of 16 templates built in to the program, each of which can be fully customized. So, if your work involves crunching, manipulating, or presenting with numbers and mathematical formulas, Numbers for iPad will quickly become an indispensible tool for getting work done while on the go.