Used Excel for an extremely long time, now using OpenOffice...

Question

I've been using Excel since about 1989, and so it's hard to switch from it to something else. Recently I've become fed up with Microsoft's serial number scheme, and now have legitimate DVDs/CDs practically worthless because I have used the serial number too many times. I also refuse to call India to have these validated. Because of all this crap, I've started using OpenOffice.
OpenOffice is nice, but it's taking me a long time to get used to it. Every thing about it is just "ok." There's nothing outstanding about it. I'm wondering if Numbers would be better. Most of what I do is for myself only.
I've looked at the tutorials for Numbers, but I'm wondering if anyone as made one for people who are switching from Excel, and need to be shown "here's what you did in Excel, now here's how it's done in Numbers."
Has anyone used all three? Would OpenOffice or Numbers be better to switch to?
Thanks.

Answer 1

Untmdsprt wrote:
something as simple as typing in a series like Jan, Feb, and then have the spreadsheet fill in the rest requires me to look up how to do it in the manual. I think I will stick with OpenOffice for right now until I've read the manual for Numbers.
Jerrold Green1 wrote:> I'm not going to say anything that might discourage you from reading the User Guides, but you will find that most things are close to being the same in Numbers as in Excel and very few are truly different.
Including the Jan, Feb... series of the example. OOo doesn't run on pre-intel Macs, so I used NeoOffice.
Excel (Win): type Jan into a cell, grab the handle at the lower right corner of the cell and drag right (or down) to fill as many cells as desired with the months in succession.
Numbers: type Jan into a cell, grab the handle at the lower right corner of the cell and drag right (or down) to fill as many cells as desired with the months in succession.
Neo did not retain the selection border and handle when data was typed into the cell, so it was necessary to confirm the entry by pressing return, enter or tab, then reselect the cell before dragging the handle. Otherwise the process was the same as Excel and Numbers.
For some series—1, 3, 5 for example—all three applications require two entries (to establish the interval) be made and selected before dragging the handle. Numbers and Excel will fill a series of alternate months. Neo will not.
BUT like Jerry, I would NOT discourage anyone from reading the Numbers '09 User Guide (and the iWork Formulas and functions User Guide as needed).
Regards,
Barry
PS: I share some of your frustration, but in the opposite direction. Most things are similar enough in Excel to what I'm used to after years of using AppleWorks and months of using Numbers that I can usually figure out a way to do it in Excel. When I can't, the Help files are available.
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