Format a spreadsheet for another language in Numbers on iPhone
A spreadsheet’s language and region determine the formatting conventions of the text—for example, whether commas or periods are used as decimal points, which currency symbol is used, where to hyphenate words at line breaks, and how dates are presented (day/month/year or month/day/year).
You can create a spreadsheet that uses the formatting of a different language as long as you have more than one input source (for example, a second keyboard) added in Settings.
Set up a keyboard or other input source for another language
To use another language in your spreadsheet, first set up an input source (a language-specific keyboard or character palette, for example) for the language.
On the Home screen, tap Settings, then tap General.
Tap Keyboard, tap Add New Keyboard, then tap the keyboard you want to use.
To learn about using different languages and keyboards, see the user guide for your device.
If Numbers is open, quit Numbers and reopen it so that it recognizes the source.
To switch to the other input source, press and hold
at the bottom of the keyboard, then choose the one you want.
If you switch to a language written in a direction different from the current language, the insertion point moves to the side of the spreadsheet used by the new language. For example, if you switch the input source from English to Hebrew, the insertion point moves to the right side of the spreadsheet.
Create a spreadsheet with the formatting of a different language
When you create a new spreadsheet, you can automatically format numbers, dates, times, and currency in tables and charts using the formatting conventions of a specific language and region. You might want to do this if you plan to share the spreadsheet with someone in another region.
For example, some regions use commas instead of periods to indicate decimal points, or different monetary symbols for currency, or they display numbers from right to left instead of left to right.
This language setting affects only the current spreadsheet.
With the spreadsheet manager in browse view, tap
at the top of the screen.Tap
in the top-right corner of the template chooser, then choose another language (you may need to tap the current language to see other languages).Tap Settings in the top-left corner of the language menu, tap Done, then tap the template you want to use.
When you choose a new language, the template titles and text and some formatting controls change to reflect that language.
When you view a spreadsheet that uses a language and formatting different from your device’s, a message near the bottom of the spreadsheet indicates which formatting is used. To see examples of the formatting differences, tap the language in the message.
Change a spreadsheet’s language and formatting
After you create a spreadsheet, you can change its language setting while the spreadsheet is open.
Note: You can’t change this setting for a shared spreadsheet.
Tap
, then tap Language & Region.You may need to swipe up in the controls to see Language & Region.
Tap Language and choose a new language.
If you choose the first item in the Language pop-up menu (System [ language]), you reset the spreadsheet to the language and region of your device. If you subsequently change your device’s language setting, or if you open the spreadsheet on a device with a different language setting, the spreadsheet’s language and region automatically change to match the device’s. But if you share the spreadsheet, all users see the spreadsheet in your language and region.
Tap Region (if it’s active) and choose a region.
Tap Done.
After you change the spreadsheet’s language and region, any new table and chart data you enter reflects the new language. For existing table and chart data, the language in dates (for example, month names) changes, but the punctuation in dates and the order of the day, month, and year don’t change. The punctuation in numbers (for example, the decimal point and thousands separator) does change.