• Adding Shapes
• Make Your Shape Editable
• Adding Images
• Make Your Image a PDF
• Masking Images
• Create your own Mask Shape
• Instant Alpha
• Insert Audio and Video Files
• Layer Objects
• Align and Move Objects

Adding Shapes

1. Go to Insert - Shape
– or –
Use the Shapes button on the Toolbar
(Your shape appears in the middle of the sheet on a new layer.)
2. Grabto move it and
3. change it using:
the Format Bar
the Graphic Inspector
the Metrics Inspector

Make Your Shape Editable

1. Select your shape
2. Go to Format - Shape - Make Editable
3. Red handles appear that you can drag and use to re-shape.
4. Double-Click a shape to add text. It may turn on its side when you do this, but after you add your text and click outside the shape – it will go back to the position it was in.

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Adding Images

In Numbers you can add all QuickTime-supported formats, including the following file types:
• TIFF
• GIF
• JPEG
• PDF
• PSD
• EPS
• PICT

1. Go to Insert - Choose...
– or –
Use the Media button on the Toolbar
– or –
Drag and Drop from a Finder window
2. Your image appears in the middle of the sheet (on a new layer) with handles for re-sizing.
3. If you want to make further adjustments:
Go to View - Show Adjust Image

Make Your Image a PDF

To maintain the crispness of greatly enlarged or reduced images, you can convert them into a PDF files before importing into Numbers.

1. Open your image and enlarge or reduce it for Numbers.
2. Now, open Grab (in your Applications/Utilities folder) and
3. go to Capture - Selection and capture your resized image by
4. dragging across it with your cursor (a red outline appears while you are dragging).
5. When you release your mouse your captured image appears on the desktop.
6. Then, while your're still in Grab mode
7. go to File - Print...
8. click the PDF button
9. and Save as PDF...

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Masking Images

There is no crop tool in Numbers, so you may need to use a mask:
1. Select your image
2. go to Format - Mask – or – Mask with Shape

The default mask shape then appears over the image. You can resize the mask and also move the image around under the mask:
• The Edit Mask slider lets you resize your image under the mask.
• The Edit Mask button lets you move and resize your image around underneath
– or –
move and resize your mask outline over the image.
• Shift-Hold to constrain size while using any handles to resize.

To edit your mask further – do a search under edit mask in Numbers Help because this is a cheat sheet, not a how-to-do-everything sheet.

Create your own Mask Shape

1.Create a shape to be used as a mask
2. Select your image to be masked
3. Shift-Hold and select your shape
4. Go to Format - Mask with Selected Shape

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Instant Alpha

Make image colors transparent:
1. Select image
2. Go to Format - Instant Alpha
3. Instructions appear

Option-Hold while dragging will make non-contiguous areas lose the same color. (Contiguous means “sharing a common border; touching”.)

Goofed up? Go to Format - Remove Instant Alpha.

Insert Audio and Video Files

1. Go to Insert - Choose...
– or –
Use the Media button on the Toolbar
– or –
Drag and Drop from a Finder window
2. Double-Click the icon to hear/see your file.
3. Use the QuickTime Inspector to make changes.
(Note: Loop Back and Forth literally plays your file forward and backwards. It’s quite fun.)

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Layer Objects

1. Select an object/image
2. Go to Arrange and send its layer:
• Back (bottom layer)
• Backward (one layer back)
• Forward (one layer forward)
• Front (top layer)

Align and Move Objects

To align various objects/images:
1. Move an image around and use the guide lines
– OR –
Select - or -
Shift-Select - or -
Marquis-Select multiple images
2. Go to Arrange - Align Objects - or - Distribute Objects

If you just need to make some objects move together:
1. Shift-Select - or - Marquis-Select them until all their handles appear and
2. Go to Arrange - Group to make them a single object.

Any questions?

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