Saving Numbers Files

Unlike Snow Leopard, Lion takes for ever to close even a simple Numbers spreadsheet after the spreadsheet has been modified, even by altering the data in only one cell.
I have waited over 1 minute whilst the spinning wheel spins and eventually the window closes after the red window "close" button has been pressed.
I assume this is an unwanted effect of AutoSave and it completely destroys the productive use of Numbers in busy office environment and makes AutoSave a complete nuisance.
Does any one know if AutoSave can be disabled or put in the Trash bin?
The only solution I have found to this problem of protratcted closure times is to:
1. Duplicate your spreadsheet (it closes immediately when the red "close" button is clicked.
2. The resulting saved spreadsheet is saved as a copy.
3. Delete the original spreadsheet (unless you want to keep it as a duplicate)
4. Re-title the copy back to the title of the original spreadsheet.
Job done - but what a complete waste of time.
Closing a Numbers spreadsheet on Snow Leopard is infinitely faster and better.
Any help on this problem would be most gratefully received
Thanks.

Tks to all for the comments. Spent time with the Apple Store folk today and, after much experimentation with the guys, we established that source of problem appeared to be Kaspersky Anti Virus 2011.
Turning KAV off restored Lion response speeds when closing files. Problem thought to be a mismatch between Autosave and Kav.
Thought I'd post this in case others hit a similar problem.
Strangely enough though the problem doesn't occur with my other MacBook Pro also running Lion and KAV 2011 - very strange! Ah well .....!

Similar Messages

Can't seem to be able to open a saved numbers file. Any ideas why?

Hi everyone!
I have my budget in numbers. Today I can't open one of the spreadsheets. I have no idea what happened since I work on these every day and have never had issues. And there's no help from Numbers either, it just says the file cannot be opened.
Any ideas? I would really appreciate any tips or tricks you have to get me to open this.
Thx

May you give details ?
Which precise operating system ? At this time we may just assume that you are running OSX and it's not sure because quite everyday we see question related to Numbers for iOS.
Which precise version of Numbers ?
If you are asking about Numbers for OSX, I'm always puzzled by this kind of qiuestion.
The basic rule when we work on important dats on a computer is to keep several consecutive versions and to never save a file upon the one which we just opened.
If you break this rule, you may be sure that one day, you will open a file, make changes and corrupt the file during the save process.
In such case, the datas are lost.
If you run under Lion, you may go to :
Versions as a recovery tool
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3303794
You would get two scripts allowing you to extract a version from the datas stored by the system in a hidden folder.
Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) lundi 20 février 2012
iMac 21”5, i7, 2.8 GHz, 12 Gbytes, 1 Tbytes, mac OS X 10.6.8 and 10.7.3
My Box account is : http://www.box.com/s/00qnssoyeq2xvc22ra4k

When saving a file i don't see the progress

When saving Numbers files I use to see the progress of the save. I no longer see its progress. The files are being saved. Any reason why this is happening??
tj

I'm on OS X 10.7, your profile says you're on 10.6.8, so i can't duplicate what you are seeing. If I was to guess, I'd say it is related to changes made for Lion where versions are periodically saved automatically in the background, where you wouldn't want a progress window always popping up. "Save" has become "Save a Version" and, though I hadn't noticed, probably also does not pop up a progress window..

How can I open a Numbers file to the last cell used on from the previous saving of that file?

In Excel, the .xls file would always open on the the cell location where the file was previously saved. Very nice to have feature when the file is long ,so one does not have to keep scrolling down the page to make the next entry every time the file is opened.
Can Numbers do this? I can't find an option for it.
After opening a file, I must always scroll down to the last entry or where I want to start inputting data. What a pain.
Is there a way to open a numbers file to where one was located when it was previously saved?
Anybody know? Please help.
Thanks

CF,
When I Save a Numbers document with a cell Selected and then close the document, the same cell is still selected when I reopen the document. Isn't that what you are asking for? Furthermore, if I have chosen 100% zoom scale, the selected cell is displayed in the same screen position as when it was last saved. What you may be seeing that you don't care for is that if the zoom is other than 100% the table's position in the display window may be different than at the last Save.
Jerry

Re-saving a Numbers file

This must be simple. I created a Numbers file, saved it, opened the saved file, and edited it. Then I tried to Save it again. It told me I 'didn't have permission to change that file'. My account is an Administrator.
Surely you can resave the same, edited file?

Control-select the files' icon and select Get Info. Look at the "Ownership & Permissions" section.
Regards,

Numbers file could not be saved

I am repeatedly getting the message "the document could not be saved." This happened if I save the document with save as or just save. The preference setting "Save new documents as packages" does not make a difference regardless if it is selected or unselected.
Any suggestions?

I discovered a bit more about the problem. The problem appeared after I deleted 10 data points in two adjacent columns. After tthe deletions, I could no longe save the file. The file was saved immediately prior to the problem, thus I went back to the previous file. This time I deleted the data one column at a time and then saved the file. That worked.
The data I deleted was used in a plot. The file is large, about 110,000 data points. The problem had appeared before when the file as far smaller. I never figured out what happened back then, I just went to the back up and started over.

Sample Applescript: scraping values from numbers files into a master file

Hi, I have programming experience in c and other languages, but am new to applescript and so am learning a lot from this forum.
My goal is to make a timesheet system for my Dad (for a bday present) where every time he helps a client, he fills out a newly created numbers file - and after a week or so, he can run a script that scrapes certain values from each numbers file and places it into a master numbers file. Then saving and closing the file.
Vince, it sounds like you've written a script that does this feature of looping through all numbers files in a folder and putting select values from each numbers file into a master numbers file (after clearing the previous values of the master file).
Specifically, I'm looking for a sample script that opens up a numbers file, clears its table, then fills this table by scraping one value from a particular cell in every numbers file in a folder.
If anyone has a similar script they would be willing to post or email to me, for me to use as a foundation and to learn from, I would be very very very grateful. My email is forman.jq at gmail dot com.

I guess that this script may be a good starting point.
--[SCRIPT fromfolder_2spreadsheet1]
The target spreadsheet must be open at front and must contain the sheet sheet_destination which much contain the table table_destination.
Choose the folder supposed to store the source sopreadsheets.
Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France)
2010/08/18
--=====
(* Edit these height properties to fit your needs *)
property destination : "destinationDoc.numbers"
property sheet_destination : "destination"
property table_destination : "insert here"
property premierelignedestination : 2
property colonne_destination : 2
property ledossierhabituel : "Macintosh HD Maxtor:Users:yvan_koenig:Desktop:dossier habituel:"
property ligne_source : 2
property colonne_source : 2
--=====
on run
my activateGUIscripting()
Select the folder storing the spreadsheets from which we will extract values *)
set dossier_source to choose folder with prompt "Choose folder storing the Numbers documents…" default location (ledossierhabituel as alias)
Build a list of disk items available in the selected folder *)
tell application "System Events"
set les_elements to every disk item of folder (dossier_source as text) --whose (get type identifier) is in
set les_tableurs to {}
Extracts the list of the Numbers spreadsheets available in the selected folder *)
repeat with refsurelement in les_elements
if type identifier of refsurelement is in {"com.apple.iwork.numbers.numbers", "com.apple.iwork.numbers.sffnumbers"} then
copy path of refsurelement to end of les_tableurs
end if
end repeat
end tell -- System Events
if les_tableurs is {} then
No Numbers documents available so we stop the process. *)
set rapport to "The folder “" & dossier_source & "” doesn’t contain Numbers documents !"
else
set rapport to {}
end if
Check that the target Numbers document is open at front
and that it embed the defined sheet embedding the defined table. *)
tell application "Numbers"
activate
set existants to name of documents
if destination is not in existants then
copy "The document " & destination & " is not open !" to end of rapport
else
tell document destination
if sheet_destination is not in (name of sheets) then
copy "the sheet " & sheet_destination & " is unavailable in the document " & destination & " !" to end of rapport
else
tell sheet sheet_destination
if table_destination is not in (name of tables) then copy "The table " & table_destination & " is unavailable in the sheet " & sheet_destination & " of the document " & destination & " !" to end of rapport
end tell -- sheetSource
end if
end tell --document destination
end if
If target document is not at front or if it doesn't match the defined requirements,
we quit the process. *)
if rapport is not {} then error my recolle(rapport, return)
Clean the target table, minus row 1 supposed to be storing columns headers *)
tell document destination to tell sheet sheet_destination to tell table table_destination
set selection range to range ("A2 : " & name of last cell)
end tell --document destination
end tell -- Numbers
my selectMenu("Numbers", 4, 9) (* Suppress *)
set liste_valeurs to {}
tell application "Numbers"
repeat with un_tableur in les_tableurs
Open the spreadsheets and extract from each of them the wanted value *)
open un_tableur
tell document 1 to tell sheet 1 to tell table 1
set une_valeur to value of cell 2 of column 2
end tell
if une_valeur is 0.0 then
copy "empty" to end of liste_valeurs
else
copy une_valeur as text to end of liste_valeurs
end if
close document 1
end repeat
Now, it's time to insert the values in the target table *)
set ligne_destination to premierelignedestination
tell document destination to tell sheet sheet_destination to tell table table_destination
repeat with une_valeur in liste_valeurs
if not (exists row ligne_destination) then add row below last row
if une_valeur is not "empty" then
set value of cell ligne_destination of column colonne_destination to une_valeur
end if
set ligne_destination to ligne_destination + 1
end repeat
end tell -- document destination
save document destination
end tell -- Numbers
end run
--=====
on recolle(l, d)
local oTIDs, t
set oTIDs to AppleScript's text item delimiters
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to d
set t to l as text
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to oTIDs
return t
end recolle
--=====
on activateGUIscripting()
(* to be sure than GUI scripting will be active *)
tell application "System Events"
if not (UI elements enabled) then set (UI elements enabled) to true
end tell
end activateGUIscripting
--=====
my selectMenu("Pages",5, 12)
==== Uses GUIscripting ====
on selectMenu(theApp, mt, mi)
tell application theApp
activate
tell application "System Events" to tell process theApp to tell menu bar 1 to ¬
tell menu bar item mt to tell menu 1 to click menu item mi
end tell -- application theApp
end selectMenu
--=====
--[/SCRIPT]
I apologize, I'm too busy to write more explanations.
Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) mercredi 18 août 2010 21:38:04

Can't open a numbers file

Dear Colleages
I have a big problem with a numbers file. I work with the numbers version and have saved a file couple days ago on a usb stick. It file with my password login usw. I have done and used that file for months and I have been using the new numbers version since the launch of the new version. Today when I wanted to open the file to adjust it I get the messge "pw.numbers file can't be opened". I have not used dropbox or cloud for that file.
What can I do.
Thanks for your help

Hello Paul,
Can I ask how you are opening the file? I am having similair issues, although I am preferring iWorks '09 apps still but have both installed, and working on files on a remote server (WebDav), I am getting the similiar errors, but if I copy the file to the local desktop and work with it there, then it's fine. Maybe your attempting to open from the USB stick!? Try locally on the desktop/documents folder?

How do I prevent AE from saving .AEP files in the wrong folders?

I've been using AE heavily for about 6 months, and it has this really pesky basic Windows UI problem that makes life quite frustrating. I work on lots of projects that I maintain sequentially numbered in their respective folders. Typically in Windows when you choose "Save As" windows defaults to the folder the current file resides in. For some reason After Effects defaults to the last folder I saved a file in, which often times is not the folder I am in. So I end up with project files from projectA stored in the projectB folder. This leads to version control problems when members of the team can't find the most recent version of projectA and so they start working on the previous version of ProjectA and later on ask me where all my changes are. I want to believe that AE has a checkbox in preferences somewhere that says "make save-as feature operate like every other windows program" - but I haven't found it yet. Does anyone have any advice on this topic?

I want to believe that AE has a checkbox in preferences somewhere that says "make save-as feature operate like every other windows program" - but I haven't found it yet. Does anyone have any advice on this topic?
I think you are operating on wrong assumptions - a project is just a reference to other files plus some internal data, so it doesn't exactly make sense to maintain endless lists of absolute paths, given that you can import things back and forth in a million ways. What happens as soon as you import a project into another one? What, when you collect files? What happens when you re-import pre-rendered files? A "same origin" policy would be riddled with tons of issues to figure out the logic as to what the user actually wants to do and which path is the correct one.... I've never missed any such feature.
Mylenium

Why do my numbers files not email properly?

Disclaimer: I'm fairly computer savvy and have a good amount of experience in using Numbers (mostly Numbers'09).
I've recently encountered a new problem when emailing numbers (.numbers) files.
They are not coming through correctly.
This may be a "new" issue with the recent upgrade from Numbers'09 but I'm not sure since I have not had the need to send a numbers doc from one person/computer to another since the update to the new version of Numbers.
Here's what happens:
The file sends with no problem. I'm able to receive the file with no problem.
I CANNOT OPEN the numbers document.
When i receive the document it is not coming in the full size. For example: A document that is actually 324K in size is only being received as 8K.
- I am unable to preview the document.
- It appears to have no data
In an attempt to self-solve the problem - I saved the file that I'm attempting to send as a "Numbers 09" version. I was able to send and open this successfully.
The computer that I'm on/sending to/opening in, is running the current version and the SAME version of numbers as the other computer (version 3.2).
I'm quite confused and have not been able to find a solution on my own.
If anyone has run into this, has an idea or has a solution it would be HUGELY appreciated!
Thanks in advance for ANY and ALL feedback and support.

Hi John,
I don't really want to switch my method of filing simply for sharing purposes.
Perhaps a solution for now could be to revert a document to Numbers '09 before emailing?
When Numbers 3.0 was released in November 2013, many people were stunned that a so-called upgrade had lost so many features. But slowly (through this forum working together) it became clear that Apple had provided several safety-nets.
- Numbers 3 did not replace Numbers '09 on any computer. Numbers '09 was moved to a folder named iWork '09 inside the Applications folder. It still works on OS X Mavericks just as it always did on previous versions of OS X.
Numbers 3 did not replace the icon on the Dock. That icon continues to point to Numbers '09.
Wayne Contello has written a User Tip for working with the old and new versions of iWork:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6991
- Documents and templates created in Numbers '09 will carry many of the "lost" features into Numbers 3.
- A document "stolen" by Numbers 3 can not be opened in Numbers '09. Numbers 3 has Menu > File > Export To > Numbers '09... to revert that document. However, reverting a document created in Numbers 3 will not magically install lost Numbers '09 features. They are gone (for now).
- Numbers '09 and Numbers 3 run happily together at the same time. Just be sure which version you use when opening a document. Use Menu > File > Open or Menu > File > Open Recent.
With each update (Numbers 3.0 to 3.01, 3.1 and now 3.2) many features have been restored. They may now live under a different menu, button, or Inspector (Format Panel).
This forum has helped me and other users to find out where our cheese is now:
Who Moved My Cheese?
http://www.spencerjohnson.com/Book-WhoMovedMyCheese.html
Regards,
Ian.

I have been working on the same numbers file for the past few weeks. The last time I opened it was 1 week ago. Today when I tried to open it I am unable and getting a message that the file is invalid and the index.xml file is missing.

I have been working on the same numbers file for the past few weeks. The last time I opened it was 1 week ago. Today when I tried to open it I am unable and getting a message that the file is invalid and the index.xml file is missing.

Hi Tracie,
I upgraded to Maverick OS X 10.9.5, numbers spreadsheet is saved. Upon re-opening, it appears to be frozen, a warning "file is invalid as index.xml file is missing". I checked, and the file is not "locked". This appears to occur only with using the new numbers app. When I open previous spreadsheets from old iWorks, no such problem occurs.
How did you resolve your problem?
Would appreciate any help here.
Thanks,
Deehay

Numbers file on the Desktop that does not exist??

I have a newly set up MacBook Pro with Lion 10.7.2. I have created a numbers file that is NOT saved on the Desktop. I have an icon of that file on the Desktop and can select it but the file doesn't exist. I have navigated to the folder as su in Terminal and the file doesn't exist. The icon shows on the Desktop though.
The numbers document you can see above the selected is the numbers document that I saved after I had seen what I have described above. When I saved it there was no prompt to overwrite the file because.........it doesn't exist!!
Ideas anyone??

I may be making a mistake by even mentioning this, but this may be a rare case for enabling the Root User to delete the file if that is what you want to do. In almost every case, it's not a good idea to tell people to enable Root. So other more experienced users may have other suggestions. But if you log in as Root, try to delete the file, then log back out of Root, you should be OK. Carefully read here first about Enabling Root.

How to export of multi-sheet Numbers file to PDF in one go?

Attempts to export more than first sheet as a PDF fails. Export to Excel is sort of OK, but only with some loss of format.
PDF work-around involved saving the Numbers file with different file names for succeeding sheets, then eliminating earlier sheets before exporting as PDFs, and finally using Acrobat Pro to glue the whole boiling together. Very clumsy.
What am I doing wrong? And what should I do instead?

I would have thought that "Print Sheet(s)" would have done this but... Export to PDF does support multiple sheet "printing." Select the Sheets then Export > PDF...
Regards,

Numbers Files (3.2) Files Reformatted to .iwa format. Is there a way to recover?

I have a small handful of Numbers files that I recently worked in, saved, and closed correctly (as far as I know) but upon trying to access them again, they are now in a format I'm not able to re-open. The new format is, basically, a file folder with the following contents, and I can find no corresponding ".numbers" file to go along with it:
I'm wondering if anyone out there has run into this issue, and if there is a way to recover them. I'm hopeful, because it appears there is still data within these files.
I'm not certain if this issue was caused somehow by the Numbers software itself (I've stumbled on some discussions involving folks having trouble after upgrading to 3.2 which is what I'm using) OR if it was caused by malware. I did recently delete Mac Defender from my computer because it was suspect, but I'm coming up clean when I scan for malware.
I'm working on OSX 10.9.4, and Numbers 3.2.

Hi Kristel,
This will not answer your question, but it may give some insight into how you got there.
Numbers documents are actually packages of files. Somehow you managed to open the package to see the contents. I don't know how that happened, but you can open a package by right clicking (control clicking) on a document in finder and Show Package Contents:
To see this:
And perhaps you opened index.zip with a double click?
What happens when you close that Finder window? Is the Numbers document where you expect it to be?
What do you get when you do a Spotlight search for your document?
As I said, this may not be of help, but it might lead others to give you a solution.
Regards,
Ian.

Why don't Grapher's Frame Limits work correctly with saved Grapher files using multiple equations on Mountain Lion?

Hi,
I generally enjoy using Grapher in OS X (I am using Mountain Lion v10.8.2). However, I have repeatedly encountered what seems to be broken basic functionality in setting the limits on the display frame (View> Frame Limits…). When opening saved Grapher files with multiple valid equations in them (equations which include constant terms defined as sets of numbers), I repeatedly get the following behavior:
1. Frame limits are not correctly saved. As in, the file opens with a different view than it was saved and closed in.
2. Frame limits no longer work as expected. For example, I might set the Y axis frame limits to be -2 to 2, but the Y axis of the frame display will run from about -1.95 to about -0.35.
3 Performance is degraded. Making a change to the frame limits (for ecxample, changing the Y frame limits to -2.2 and 5 in an attempt to display something approximating the range -2 to 2) take an inordinate amount of both processor time and clock time. The spinning ball appears and hangs out far longer than is welcome, and at times seems to hang requiring a force quit of Grapher.
These problems occur regardless of coordinate system.
Is there a solution? If I create a new file and start from scratch the problems reappear. The problems reappear across a wide range of 2D equation types.
Is Grapher simply broken in this regard?
Thanks for the input.

Bonjour Lexy-Lou,
   You are right, the bug was born with Grapher as you may read on the website
<http://y.barois.free.fr/grapher/> :
Grapher’s bugs and their remedies (OS X in French).
          Bug nr. 1. (Grapher 1.1, 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3). When modifying the main 2D window size, the graph length and height already formatted (menu Format) are changed : axis scale values stay the same, added objects remain same size on the same places (unit pixel) relative to the graph left upper corner ; but the graph view changes for the ratio H/L do so : very annoying !
                    The remedy : To restore the 2D graph after changing the window size : menu Format > Layout > Size > redo the initial choice (paper size or L and H values)… or avoid having to do so by selecting a window large enough to begin with.
                    Proposed correction : making the graph size independent of the main window’s one.
          Bug nr. 2. (Grapher 1.1, 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3). Saving is wrong in 2D (menu File > Save, Save as, Save a copy as). Are not seved : the last location on the screen of the main window, the graph size, the maximum and minimum values of the ordinate scale : very very annoying !
                    Note : The new windows of Grapher 1.1 (Grapher secondary window > New Graph > 2D or 3D Graph) always open in the same place on the screen( OS X 10.4.11 configured in French) depending on the language used by Grapher : if it’s English, well placed and covering most of the screen, if it is French, the windows are half length but same height and are located on the right side of the screen. This anomaly disappeared with Grapher 2.0, 2.1, 2.2 (English or French).
                    The remedy : to restore the 2D graph after opening a GCX files (.gcx) : menu Format > Layout > Size > redo the initial choice (Paper size or L and H values) to be done twice ; then menu View > Frame limits... > enter minimum and maximum vaues of the y scale. This requires to note four numerical values, L, H, y-min, y-max, for example at the top of the equation list (or at the bottom : see bug nr. 27).
                    Proposed correction : complete saving in 2D.
For the full list of Grapher's bugs please download "Instructions for Use - Grapher" (English) or "Mode d'emploi de Grapher" (French). Quick glance at the Contents (pages 2 & 3) you'll be surprised by the possibilities of Grapher.app despite the bugs.
Enjoy,
Au revoir,
YB24

Saving Numbers Files

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