Pages

[jessalee]

Hello,
I have an iPad 2 and I have Pages for it. I love the app but I was wondering if anyone knew if you could total up the check marks in a column. See I made a list of everyone I invited to this party I'm having and next to their names I added a column of check boxes to check if they say they are coming. However I didn't think of the fact that I would then have to go through and count all the checks. And with a list of 200 guests that's a lot of time and margin for error. Therefore I was wondering if there was a function to have Pages add up all the checks. Does anyone know that? Thanks!

 

[Plainsman]

I checked with PAGES. It says...

"That's too many people. Reduce guest list by at least 150."

(Sorry. Couldn't resist. But probably should have. I use PAGES, too, but don't know the answer to your question. I'm sure someone here will. Good luck!)

 

[HKWrite12]

Well I would have put it in a table. Y (ur number of columns) by 200 and copied the checks down the table. One excel or numbers there used to be a fill down feature. Also the number Knicks on numbers would guarantee ur count.

 

[twerppoet]

No way to do it in Pages itself. However, if you used a table to enter the names and checkmarks, then the table can be copied and pasted into a Numbers document.

If you can do that, and care enough to go through the trouble, I can talk you through how to get a sum of the checkmarks at the bottom. Or you can figure it out for yourself. Clue: the COUNTA function works pretty well, as long as blank cells really are blank (no spaces).

 

[jessalee]

Now in numbers

Ok so I've got it all set up in numbers...would you mind walking me through how to use the tool you mentioned? Thank you to everyone for your help so far!

 

[twerppoet]

Ok, it is pretty straight forward, sorta.

First you need a blank line at the bottom of the table, if you don't have one already. You can expand the table by dragging the buttons at the bottom left and top right. You can also pinch to zoom in and out of the table to get better views for working with it.

Double tap the empty cell below the checkmark column.

Tap the = sign to the left of the text field in the editor when it pops up. This will put you in Formula mode.

Tap the Functions button. Select to view by Catagories if needed, then Select All, scroll down to COUNTA, and tap it. (You can tap the blue arrow to the right of the function for its help information).

You'll see the basic function in the editor with some place holder values. The value button should be a bright blue color to show it is already selected. Other pastel (dim) colors indicate non-selection.

Scroll the upper window until you can see the top of the table (be careful not to accidentally select a cell, if you do just tap undo at the top left). Now tap the solid gray bar exactly (as possible) above the checkmark column. You should see the entire column get selected and highlighted. The value in the formula will be replaced the column letter.

Tap the green checkmark to the right of the formula to enter and check it.

Your selected cell should now show you the number of cells that had data entered in them. This particular formula does not care what kind of data it is, numeric or text. That is handy, but that also means it will count spaces, so make sure empty checkmark cells really are empty. If they have so much as a space character in them they will get counted.

You could also use this on the name column, which would tell you how many guests you expected as opposed to how many showed up.

 

[jessalee]

alright so I tried that and I got the error triangle that it gives you if you are missing data to complete a function. I have attached some pictures to show what my set up is and what I am looking to achieve. I also took a picture of the error message it gives me just incase it has a simple fix. Thank you so much for your help!

 

[jessalee]

Alright so I just messed around with it and figured out my problem. I was including the cell I wanted to put the data in because I selected all of column C so it was getting confused. So once i changed the range of input to exclude the last cell that i wanted my total in, it worked. However, because I am using the check list feature, like you said, there is content in all the boxes because i have the unchecked check marks too. Therefore, it gave me the total of guests. Is there a way to make it work by excluding the unchecked check boxes or to make this actually work do I have to delete all the unchecked boxes?

 

[twerppoet]

Wow! How in the heck did you create that table in Pages? I looked for a checkbox option and never found it.

Anyway, you are getting the error because the formula (as I had you set it up) will only work in the very bottom cell of the column. You put it in the middle, so that it's trying to count its own cell.

If you want to place the result (formula) where you have it, then instead of tapping the bar at the top of the column, tap on one of the cells you want to count and drag the selection handles to include the rest of the cells. Make sure the formula cell is not included in the selection.

Or if you want it at the bottom, and want to avoid entering the formula again, tap and hold on the formula cell. When it kind of floats above the table, drag it to the bottom of the table and drop it into the desired cell. Or you can drag it to any other cell location, as long as it is not in the middle of the column you want to count.

I'm curious to see if/how it works, since I did not actually have checkmark cells to play with.


UPDATE: I tried it myself, and this formula is not going to work with actual checkboxes. It counts everything. I'll see if I can find something else that works.

 

[jessalee]

I don't know how to do it in pages my friend sent it to me as a templet or something. I don't really know she set it up for me I just put in the data but anywho yeah I saw my problem and was able to fix it. I got it to work but had to go through and delete all the unchecked boxes. But again thanks!!

 

[twerppoet]

Ok a formula that will work with checkboxes.

You want the COUNTIF function instead of COUNTA.

Setup and complete the test-array variable as you did the value in COUNTA.

Then tap the condition variable to select it. It should turn blue when selected.

Tap the formula button, browse to the Logical functions and tap TRUE.

Tap the green checkmark to complete and error check.

Just like the previous function the range of cells can not include the formula cell.

Good luck.

 

[twerppoet]

Ok, I'm a bit late. Well, it should work for next time.

 

[jessalee]

Hahahahahaha that's ok I undid the deleting of all unchecked boxes because I not only wanted to see if it worked but I also want to be able to know for the future. And guess what? It worked, perfectly! Thank you so much!

 

[twerppoet]

No problem. I actually kind of enjoy creating/figuring out spreadsheets. I just don't want to have to use them myself.

 

[jessalee]

Good cause I like figuring things out and then using them!