iWork '09: The Missing Manual

Exporting to Other Formats

Paper is all well and good, but chances are that you’re going to find yourself sharing your document electronically far more often than you put it on paper. When you’re sending your spreadsheet file to friends or coworkers who haven’t yet discovered the joys of iWork, Numbers lets you save your document in a handful of other formats to allow even these poor souls to receive the benefit of your labor. You can save your spreadsheet for editing and viewing in Microsoft Excel, Numbers ’08, or CSV format. You can also save your document as a read-only PDF file; this is the only option that will always look exactly like your original, but with the obvious drawback that it can’t be edited. Each of these choices have their strengths and weaknesses, and this section explains them all.

Note

Numbers makes it especially easy to export documents as Excel or Numbers ’08 files, giving them a privileged spot in the Save dialog box, as you’ll see. All your options, however, are available from the Share → Export dialog box.

Saving an Excel File

The heavyweight champion of the spreadsheet world is, of course, Microsoft Excel. It’s far and away the most popular spreadsheet program out there, which means that sooner or later, someone’s going to ask for your spreadsheet as an Excel file. Numbers makes it easy to save a copy for Excel: Choose File → Save As, turn on the “Save copy as” checkbox at the bottom of the Save window, choose Excel Document in the pop-up menu next door, ...