TableEdit FAQ

Q: Why another spreadsheet application?

Q: Whats the difference between TableEdit and TableEdit-Lite?

Q: Why was TableEdit changed from free to commercial?

Q: What improvements are planned for the future?

Q: How can i 'script' a cell with Python or VBA?

Q: Can I change row height or make text in a cell wrapped?

Q: Can I export to PDF?

Q: How can I change the width of columns?

Q: How can I move rows or columns?

Q: Why am I seeing promotions about your other apps although I purchased TableEdit?

Q: How can I change the column headers or row numbers?

Q: How can I make the first row a floating/sticky header row?

Q: How can I sort the table by a column?

Q: Which excel compatible functions are supported?

There are no good Mac-native spreadsheets. Existing spreadsheets for Mac OS X take ages to launch and are complex, complicated and bloated. Online spreadsheets have awful usability and are not Mac-like or integrated into the Mac Desktop. Open source spreadsheets work great under Linux and even Windows but on the Mac they are barely usable, sluggish and look disgusting. TableEdit is a simple spreadsheet for the Mac that launches quickly and lets you get started right away.

TableEdit-Lite is the light and open-source version of the spreadsheet TableEdit. In contrast to TableEdit it does not have:
• cell content styling including fonts, font styles and sizes, font colors and text alignment
• cell background styling including fill-colors and borders
• cell formatting as currencies, date and time formats and different numbers formats like scientific or percentages
• support for charts & graphs (bar chart, line chart, etc)
• support for a world-class Excel-compatible formula & function system to calculate SUMs and much more
• support for alternating row colors
• support for floating header rows
• support for adjustable row height
• support for table scaling & magnification

What does TableEdit-Lite have in common with TableEdit:
• An easy fast, intuitive & Mac-like spreadsheet system
• Support for 16 million rows or columns
• Support for sorting: single columns, parts of columns or the whole table
• Easy column reordering via drag & drop, row-reordering via menu-item
• Easy adding of rows & columns with the draggable plus-buttons
• Excel (.xls, .xlsx) import & export
• Configurable CSV/TSV import & export
• PDF export
• Printing support
• Support for Undo and Redo
• Support for going back to any previous saved version of any spreadsheet
• Inserting of rows & columns at arbritrary positions
• Support for drag & drop and copy & paste even from other spreadsheets
• Support for "filling" cells from neighbouring cells
• Support for inserting dates and times into cells
• Support for inserting configurable numbers into cells (ascending, descending, etc)
• Support for autosizing of column widths
• A common file-format with TableEdit, so you can edit TableEdit spreadsheets in TableEdit-Lite and vice versa

TableEdit does not include support for 'VBA' but it allows a flexible extension mechanism via the 'Python' programming language.
Specifically you can add scripts to the '~/Library/Containers/com.corecode.TableEdit/Data/Library/Application Support/TableEdit/PythonFunctions/' folder and then use them like you would use any other function like SIN or DAY (if you are using the version bought from the homepage, substitute TableEdit for TableEdit-HP). The scripts should be named like this: NAMEOFFUNCTION_NUMBEROFARGUMENTS.py
For example, you can put a text file named 'PI_0.py' into the 'PythonFunctions' folder with a script like this: 'print "3.14159"'. Since the script has a 0 at the end of the filename, it doesn't take any arguments. You can now use it like any other Function, however with the "PY_" prefix. So, you can now enter '=PY_PI()' into a cell, and the cell will contain the first few digits of PI, coming from the python script. You can use the result from the Python script like you would use the result of any other function, e.g. put this into a cell to get PI * 2: '=PY_PI()*2'.
As an example script that takes arguments, put a file named 'PI_1.py' into the 'PythonFunctions' folder with this script: 'import sys ; print "3.141592653589793238462643383279502884"[0:int(sys.argv[1])+1]'. You can now enter e.g. '=PY_PI(9)' into any cell in any TableEdit spreadsheet to get the first 9 digits of PI.
Your scripts can be arbritrarily complex and e.g. do things like fetch stock market information, call WebAPIs, do advanced calculations or anything else you want.
Note that the result of Python scripts will always be cached, for performance. If you need your scripts to be re-run (e.g. to fetch more recent stock market information), just press F9 to re-calculate your table.

Starting with version 1.4, TableEdit suppors variable row height. To change the row-height just click on 'Table' in the toolbar and select your desired row-height from the 'Row Height' menu. Note that an increased row height allows you to fit more than one line of text into a cell. With the default cell text size you can fit two lines of text into a cell when you select a row-height of 32 pixel or more. A row-height of 48 allows three lines. With a smaller text size even more lines of text are possible. An increased row height is one solution to fit long text into small cells. There are other solutions:
0.) You can merge a cell with the horizontally adjacent cells to have the long text span multiple cells by selecting 'Merge selected cells' from the 'Cell' menu
1.) Of course you can just make the column wide enough for the long text
2.) You can decrease the font size to make the long text fit
3.) Instead of merging cells you can cut up the long text and distribute it to the neighbouring cells by hand
4.) A workaround for long text is the 'Main Cell Editor' in the toolbar, select the cell with cut-off long text and you'll see the contents in the toolbar
5.) You can also hoover the mouse over a cell with long text and a tooltip with the complete cell contents will appear

Of course: 1.) You can export to PDF from any app that supports printing by going to the print-panel and then select "Save as PDF" from the "PDF" drop-down button in the lower left corner. 2.) You can export to PDF by selecting "Export…" from the "File" menu and then selecting PDF instead of CSV or Excel. 3.) You can export individual 'Charts' by right clicking them and selecting "Save as PDF…"

Like in any other Mac app that contains columns - just put your mouse on the vertical line in the header between the columns and once the mouse cursor changes to an double-arrow <-|-> just drag to the left or right to resize. You can also 'autosize' a column (so it fits the widest row entry) by double clicking on this vertical line. To 'autosize' multiple columns at once, use the 'Autosize column(s)' menu item from the 'Column' menu.

You can move or re-order your columns like in any other Mac app by just using drag&drop on the column header.
You can move or re-order your rows by selecting the (consequitive) rows you want to move and then use the 'Move row…' menu item from the 'Row' menu.

TableEdit is no longer sold, but is a free app that displays information about our other apps sometimes when it is launched. If you have actually purchased a license for TableEdit, you can disable these promotions by entering your license code in the Documentation window. If you have purchased the Mac App Store version, we'd recommend staying on that version or contacting us for a license key.

Just as in Excel or Numbers, columns are always titled A,B,C… and rows are always numbered orderly starting from 1,2,3….
If you want named column headers, just use any row below to insert your column titles and style them according to your wishes, see illustrating screenshot here.
Similarly, if you need specialized row numbers, just do then yourself e.g. in the first column.
You can use the insert numbers feature (Cell=>Insert=>Numbers) to quickly insert numbers into a column, see illustrating screenshot here.
One thing too keep in mind when using custom header rows is sorting. When you sort your table according to a column, the header row will also be sorted together with the data rows. So its best to select the rows that should be sorted (i.e. excluding the header row) and then use the 'Sort selected rows of column' feature to restrict sorting to the chosen rows.

The very first row can be defined to 'float' above the table so that you still see your custom column header titles even when scrolling down. Just enable the 'Floating Header Row' from the 'Row' menu or from the 'Table Properties' accessible via the 'Table' toolbar button.

You can sort columns as is usual just by double clicking on the column header.
Alternatively you can sort by using the ’sort' menu items from the 'column' menu or by right-clicking on the column-header.

In case you are using the first row(s) as a header you may not want these row(s) to be included in the sort process - in this case we recommend selecting only the rows to be sorted and then use the "sort selected rows" menu item (see previous question).

One other thing to consider is that sorting by one column, will also change all the data in the other columns, so that things that were in the same row previously will still be in the same row after sorting (as is usual in spreadsheets).
In case you want to sort just a single column without affecting the order in other columns you can use the "sort column without affecting others" menu item or just hold down shift while double clicking the column header.

Note that you can also right click on a clumn header to access a context menu containing options for sorting by this column.

Currently these functions are implemented - if you need any else let us know so we can prioritize: AND AVERAGE CONCATENATE COUNT MAX MAXA MEDIAN MIN MINA OR PRODUCT SUM SUMPRODUCT XOR ABS ACOS ACOSH ACOT ACOTH ADDRESS ASIN ASINH ATAN ATAN2 ATANH BASE BITAND BITLSHIFT BITOR BITRSHIFT BITXOR CHAR CHOOSE CLEAN CODE COLUMN COS COSH COT COTH CSC CSCH DATE DAY DAYS DATEVALUE DEGREES DIVIDE DOLLAR ERFC EXACT EXP FACT FACTDOUBLE FALSE FIND GAMMALN HLOOKUP HOUR IF ISBLANK ISEVEN ISFORMULA ISLOGICAL ISODD ISNUMBER ISTEXT ISNA ISERR ISERROR LEFT LEN LN LOG LOG10 LOOKUP LOWER MATCH MINUTE MOD MONTH NA NORMSDIST NOT NOW PI POWER PROPER QUOTIENT RADIANS RAND RANDBETWEEN RIGHT ROUND ROUNDUP ROUNDDOWN ROW SEC SECOND SECH SIGN SIN SINH SUMIF SQRT SQRTPI TAN TANH TIME TODAY TRIM TRUE TRUNC UNICHAR UNICODE UPPER VLOOKUP YEAR