Numbers app - conundrum?

TidBITS Talk
1

Can anyone work-out why the columns on this table cannot be reordered? (Note: the data is not sensitive.)

When I try to reorder columns, they create a new table. Also tried de-merging the cells that say “Interest rate” and “Base rate” and then reordering columns, but the same thing happens: new table.

There must be some hidden thing stopping columns from being re-orderable, but for the life of me I cannot work out what. Stumped. :person_shrugging:

Can anyone work this out… it’s probably something simple that I’m simply missing. :face_with_diagonal_mouth:

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OK, looks like no one else can work it out, either. Thanks anyway. :neutral_face:

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I think it’s because you have the header cells in Row 2 merged, so they move as a group. Ctrl-click the cell, unmerge, rearrange the columns, then re-merge the header columns in Row 2.

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Thanks for responding, but that doesn’t do it… As I explained in the original post:

Are you able to move the columns after de-merging?

EDIT: Sorry I realised the issue I am having is with the specific four columns under the “Base rate” that are not moveable even after demerging that row above. Strange.

5

I downloaded the spreadsheet and did a quick test.

See my screen recording.

I’m using Numbers 12.1 on macOS 12.4.

Here, I can’t seem to move column I, at first, and, to my surprise, choosing Unmerge Cells on H1-J1 doesn’t seem to help.

However, after also choosing Unmerge Cells on A1-F1, I can now move column I, as expected.

I haven’t seen it create a new table at any point - for me here, if I encounter a problem, the column seems to leap back to the original position.

Hope this helps?

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@ashley Thanks for that.

So ultimately, it looks like you have to unmerge every cell on a row (i.e. here talking about Row 1: “Interest rate” and “Base rate”), before being able to move the columns underneath on Row 2 (cells A2 to K2).

No idea why that is; weird one for for sure. Anyway at least there’s a solution of sorts, without having to re-create a fresh column and copy-pasting data over.

I’ll delete the spreadsheet from Dropbox now. Thanks all! :slightly_smiling_face: