In this episode of the AppleVis Podcast, Gaurav returns with the second lesson in his series on mastering spreadsheets using Apple’s free app, Numbers for Mac. This session dives into working with row and column headers and navigating the formatter pane to make your data more accessible and structured. Gaurav shares practical tips to boost your spreadsheet skills and improve your workflow. Can’t wait for the next lesson on autofill!
Key Topics Covered:
Row and Column Headers
- Why headers matter for navigation and clarity
- How to set headers to make navigating with arrow keys easier
- Example: Entering “Food” in the row and “February” in the column
Formatter Pane Navigation
- Open the formatter with VO + U
- Interact with it using VO + Shift + Down Arrow
- Browse table styles, header/footer settings, and more
Table Editing & Customization
- Add or remove rows and columns
- Change font size and table outline
- Customize grid line visibility
Data Entry Tips
- Edit cell content with Option + Enter
- Finish editing with Command + Enter
- Try entering sample data like monthly expenses for practice
📝 Takeaways:
- Setting headers is key for organized, navigable tables
- The formatter pane unlocks a range of powerful customization tools
- Get ready to explore autofill features in the next episode!
Transcript
Disclaimer: This transcript was generated by AI Note Taker – VoicePen, an AI-powered transcription app. It is not edited or formatted, and it may not accurately capture the speakers’ names, voices, or content.
Gaurav: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the second lesson in this numbers tutorial series. I realized last lesson I did not get into much detail about the row and column headers, and we also did not discuss the formatter pane on the right side. So that's what we're going to discuss today. I have my same spreadsheet open, which we were working on earlier. And I'm going to press VO plus U for umbrella to open the window spots menu. I'm going to press down arrow.
VoiceOver: Scroll area.
Gaurav: This is the formatter pane on the right side of the table. I'm going to hit enter. I'm going to press VO shift down to interact.
VoiceOver: Formatter. Empty scroll area. Empty scroll area.
Gaurav: I'm going to enter here.
VoiceOver: Empty scroll area. Empty formatter. Sheet navigator. Sheet one. Formatter. Empty scroll area. Jump to selection. You are in table formatter. Scroll area.
Gaurav: Okay. Seems to be some error. I'm just going to press V-O plus J for jump to until I get into the formatter.
VoiceOver: In column header cell. In formatter.
Gaurav: In formatter. I'm going to press V-O shift down arrow to interact.
VoiceOver: Interact with the title table. Stop cell radio button.
Gaurav: I can see I have. I'm going to press VO plus arrow keys now.
VoiceOver: Table. Cell. Text. Text.
Gaurav: I have four different headers at the top of this formatter pane. I'm going to select table and I'm going to keep hitting VO plus right arrow until I go past all the options in the formatter view and come into the table options.
VoiceOver: table styles preset picker.
Gaurav: I can now change the style of the table that I'm currently working on. I'm going to press VO right arrow.
Gaurav/VoiceOver: Table styles. Okay, VO plus right arrow. VO plus right arrow again. Table formatter, scroll area.
Gaurav: So I'm going to press interact, V-O shift down arrow to interact with the scroll area. In the table formatter, now V-O plus right arrow.
VoiceOver: Headers and footers.
Gaurav: This is what we want. Header column count. So the header column is the leftmost column. If you remember, we had put the words transport, food, water, internet. So these were all the words or the categories we put into the leftmost column, which was our header column.
Gaurav/VoiceOver: Now, the benefit of marking a column as a header column is that whenever we're navigating within the cells of the spreadsheet, VoiceOver will keep reading out the names of the headers that have been labeled so that we know exactly which column and row that we're in and we don't need to guess what was the header for that column or row. I'm going to press VO plus right arrow again. Header row count. So here we can change the number of header rows we want.
Gaurav: We can have multiple header rows. Right now we've just left it as one. Press VO plus right arrow.
VoiceOver: Footer row count.
Gaurav: We don't have any footer rows. VO plus right arrow. Rows.
VoiceOver: You are currently on a 22. Content selected. 22.
Gaurav: So we have 22 rows in our table right now. We can maybe reduce this.
VoiceOver: 22. 0%. 22. In edit text.
Gaurav: I have done a VO shift down arrow to interact. And I'm going to make this.
VoiceOver: n deleted.
Gaurav: I'm going to make it. 22.
VoiceOver: Selection replaced. 5. 6. 22. Selection replaced. 6. 6.
Gaurav: Okay, we have nine rows now that we've edited in the number of rows that are there in our table. Hit V or press right arrow.
VoiceOver: Columns.
Gaurav: If you remember that we had put Jan, Feb, March and we'd of course left the first row as the Sorry, the first column as a header column.
Gaurav/VoiceOver: So I don't think we need seven. We can set this to five. Five. Okay, so now we've set our table to have a smaller number of rows and columns for us to work with.
VoiceOver: 0.4 for table font size.
Gaurav: Table font size. Let's hit view plus right arrow.
VoiceOver: Decrease font size button. Increase font size button. Table outline.
Gaurav/VoiceOver: line type pop-up button so table outline these are the grid lines on the external part of the table so the very outer cells of the table will have these kind of lines vo plus right arrow black zero fill reset picker black black zero 0.35 points 0.1 outline table title uncheck grid lines These are the lines between cells.
Gaurav: So here you can see in the table formatter, we have various options of changing the visual look and feel of the table. And we've also edited the number of rows and columns in our table here. And we can also change the number of header rows and header columns. We're going to press V-O plus J for jump.
Gaurav/VoiceOver: In column header cell, row in formatter, group.
Gaurav/VoiceOver: in column header cell in formatter okay we're going to un-interact auto formatter auto formatter vo plus j again in column header set in formatter group in column header cell in column header cell so now we're inside our table and january we're gonna we're on the top left column of our table. We're just again going to use the arrow keys to navigate across our table. So I'm going to hit right arrow.
VoiceOver: January column header cell.
Gaurav/VoiceOver: January column header cell. Now you know why it says column header cell here because we've set the first row of cells as our column headers. In January, we're going to press down arrow. Food 100. Food 100. Water 50. Water 50. Transportation 300. Transportation 300.
Gaurav: So now you know why we have set the column headers and the row headers because when we navigate, it allows us to hear the headers and we know exactly which cell we're on. If I'm going to come back up. Food 100. I'm going to press right arrow.
Gaurav/VoiceOver: February empty cell. So now I know that I'm in the food row in the February column and it is currently empty. January 100. February empty. Water. Food.
Gaurav: So now I'm in the food column, food row for the month of February. I'm going to enter in a option plus enter again to enter the editing field for this cell. I'm going to type
Gaurav,VoiceOver: one five zero 150 150 so food 150 food 150 just make sure that this is for february vo plus c for column february february yeah so food is now set to 150 dollars for the month of february let's go and fill out the other numbers as well down arrow water empty cell Water empty cell option plus enter to get into the editing cursor. Empty.
Gaurav: Let's set this to $30.
VoiceOver: February empty cell. Water 30.
Gaurav/VoiceOver: Water 30. Now again down arrow. Transportation empty cell.
Gaurav/VoiceOver: Transportation. I'm going to hit option plus enter. Empty word.
Gaurav: I'm into the editing field.
VoiceOver: Actions available. You are current.
Gaurav/VoiceOver: And I'm going to set this to $10. I'm going to hit command plus enter. February 10th. February is now set to $10 for transportation. Internet option plus enter.
Gaurav: I'm going to set this to $5.
Gaurav: Command plus enter to finish editing. Okay, we filled out content for January and February and we've learned today about the formatter pane and we've understood a little bit more about row headers and column headers and why they are important as we've seen now when navigating within our spreadsheet. So this is it for lesson two.
Gaurav: In lesson three, we're going to see an easy way to fill out content using the autofill menu. So we'll come back to that in lesson three. Thank you so much.