Item No.Issues in Apple's Numbers

Hi Guys,

maybe this is an elementary question but as a new user of Apple's Numbers I cant seem to find any answer to my question.

I have to organise a huge movie dvd library and have a spread sheet done ok in Numbers with 5 columns. the first column is No. as I want each line to start with an item number.. the 2nd column is Movie Description which needs to be sorted alphabetically etc..

However when I input all the data and go to sort the 2nd column (Movie Name) in ascending order the item no. is also changing so the first No. column is all out off sync etc. Is there a way of sorting out all the other colums but keeping the item No.column static so that it reads 1 -100 say and all the Movie descriptions in alphabetical order like the following:

Movie Name Released Video /Audio Description File Size
1. Avatar 2012 Bluray HD DTS 7.1 1080p 25.6Gb
2. JFK 1991 True HD DTS 5.1 1080p 19.96Gb

or do you leave out the numbering column and rely on page numbering in the printing menu at the end?

I am totally new to Numbers and know this is probably elementary but i can;t stop the number column from changing too when i sort the movie name column alphabetically.
Hopefully someone can please help
many thanks
Fergus

crimsondragon67 said:

Hi Guys,

maybe this is an elementary question but as a new user of Apple's Numbers I cant seem to find any answer to my question.

I have to organise a huge movie dvd library and have a spread sheet done ok in Numbers with 5 columns. the first column is No. as I want each line to start with an item number.. the 2nd column is Movie Description which needs to be sorted alphabetically etc..

However when I input all the data and go to sort the 2nd column (Movie Name) in ascending order the item no. is also changing so the first No. column is all out off sync etc. Is there a way of sorting out all the other colums but keeping the item No.column static so that it reads 1 -100 say ..................

Click to expand...

Hi Fergus - I have about a half dozen simple databases in Numbers, all my personal needs (e.g. movies, wine recommendations, films to see & those seen, etc.) Attached is a 'screen capture' of the start of my 'DVD/BD' movie list - the films in bold are Blu-ray discs.

Numbers will keep a numeric listing of the rows to the far left (part of the sheet) fixed as you sort on the other columns; of course if you have Headers & spacer rows, then your first film will not be 'No. 1' - not sure how important that might be for you; otherwise you'll have to find a way in Numbers to 'Freeze' a column from a sort - Dave
.

@OP I have not used Numbers much at all but have used Excel For some time. If I understand your problem correctly this is probably going to happen with any spreadsheet. When you sort the information by a certain column, in this case title, everything associated with that title moves with it so the information is kept together on the same row.

If you have something like RadDave has set up then you get the layout he has shown. In Excel a Macro could be used to count the number of rows and subtract the header row(s) thus giving a count of the total number of DVDs.

Just thinking out loud...
How about if you select everything EXCEPT the numbers column and then sort?