When talking about files used to process numbers, most people first think of XLS or XLSX files generated by Excel. Have you ever used a Numbers file, which is also excellent for handling figures? This post will give you a comprehensive introduction to this file type.
What Is a Numbers File
A Numbers file is a spreadsheet file created by Numbers, the Apple equivalent of Microsoft Excel. The file extension of a numbers file is .numbers.
Generally, information in a Numbers file is organized in rows and columns like in a table. The contents of Numbers files are built on canvas. Different from Excel files, Numbers treat tables as one media type like shapes and images that can be displayed on a page. You can insert graphics to your Numbers file to enhance the presentation of data.
Compared with Excel, Numbers includes more pre-design templates and designs, making it easier to customize charts and tables. However, Numbers files are not as feature-rich as Excel ones.
How to Open a Numbers File
Apple users can easily open Numbers files with the iWork productivity suite. For the others, you can turn to the iCloud service or any other cloud storage service that works across Apple and Windows devices. Let’s take iCloud as an example and see how to open a Numbers file outside Apple. First, log in to your iCloud account and click the “Numbers” icon on the homepage. Find or upload the Numbers file you want to open, hit the “three dots” to select “Download a copy” and choose “Excel” as the download format. Then, you can open the Numbers file with the Excel application.
How to Convert Numbers to PDF
Since Numbers is an Apple-exclusive file type, it will get a little bit problematic when it comes to cross-platform file sharing. One solution is to convert the Numbers file to a more common format with high device compatibility like PDF.
You can directly convert Numbers to PDF with the Numbers program on Mac. All you need to do is open the Numbers document, navigate to the "File" tab, select "Export To," and choose “PDF” as the exported format. There are also many online converters with which you can turn your Numbers file into PDF easily, for instance, Zamzar.
If you want to make changes to the converted PDF file or convert PDF to other office file types, SwifDoo PDF comes in handy as an all-in-one PDF editor.
