The problem was simple. I had a long table of shipping data that I needed to export from Numbers to Excel via File > Export to > Excel. After making choices and saving the exported file, Numbers popped up with an error: “Some changes were made to your exported spreadsheet. The filtered table cells were exported hidden.
Numbers notifies you when you have filtered rows and exported data.
Foundry
I didn’t remember enabling a filter in the Filter tab of the Organization Inspector. But it was there. Filters allow you to exclude or include rows based on detailed criteria that you can define. They apply to the currently selected table. For example, you may want to see only rows containing a movie that you rated 4.0 or higher, and process only entries from people living in Texas or people born after 1979. This is a way powerful to influence results, by letting the numbers work just a little. like a database.
However, once a filter is enabled for a table, if you don’t access the table for a while, you may forget it exists if you don’t show the inspector tab . The numbers provide only a simple visual clue once a filter is in place: any omitted lines have a slightly thicker line between the line numbers, and the line numbering is not sequential, i.e. i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 with line 4 filtered. will appear as 1, 2, 3, 5.
Numbers has the smallest possible visual indicator of a filtered row. At the top, I used a big red arrow and a magnified rash to show where the thicker line marker is. At the top right you can see the filter setting. At the bottom, notice that the filter has been removed and the row indicator is gone: the row numbers are sequential.
Foundry
If you ever use filters, be careful when using Numbers to avoid omitting data during export:
- Watch for Excel export error or similar.
- Select a table, go to View > Inspector > Arrangethen click Filter.
- Select a table and choose Organize > Disable filters or press Command-Option-F.
Conversely, if you want to filter a table before exporting it, remember to leave the filters activated. An export always reflects the state of the data as you see it in Numbers.
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