Unable to enter data into Numbers

Question

Level 1

61 points

Unable to enter data into Numbers

I have not tried in a while but I used to be able to copy/paste from the internet direct into Numbers and it would put the data as if it were hand entered into proper columns and rows. I just tried that and it does do the rows properly but everting is in one column.

I have checked the settings for numbers and it does "Automatically Detect Lists" but it does not seem to work as expected.

From what I see, a screen shot would make no difference other than cement the idea of a single column with multiple rows.

WGB

iMac 24″, macOS 15.4

Posted on Jul 16, 2025 3:34 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Badunit

Level 7

30,336 points

Jul 16, 2025 6:06 PM in response to Sparkgapper

Try pasting it into a fresh plain-text formatted TextEdit document to see what you have. If it is comma-separated values my guess is that not all rows have the same number of commas (columns). Numbers accommodates that a little bit but usually if it sees that it puts it all in one column. If you see some short rows, put additional commas in them then copy/paste your corrected data to Numbers.

Reply

Answer 2

Peggy

Level 8

41,829 points

Jul 16, 2025 4:25 PM in response to Sparkgapper

Just the other day I had a problem copying & pasting from data on a credit card website to a Numbers spreadsheet. It just wouldn't paste. I gave up and downloaded the data & pasted from that csv file opened in Numbers. Today it is pasting but all in the first column, not like it has in the past. But I think that is changes that the bank site has made with the data, not a problem with Numbers.

It may seem radical, but I suggest deleting Numbers.app from Applications & redownloading from the Mac App Store. That solved another problem I had recently with Pages & with Numbers. This will not delete any of your data & should keep your settings.

Reply