Copying a calculated cell from Numbers into Pages - two workarounds and Apple's Copy Snapshot answer

You can't copy a Numbers calculated cell, like one formed by concatenating strings in other cells, into Pages. The formula is pasted instead, typically with an error icon (absent references). It's apparently been a problem for all eternity, though I just ran into it recently.

What about Cmd-Opt-Shift-V?

This pastes without table formatting but Numbers will still put the formulae on the clipboard and the paste will show broken references. Unless you use the Copy Snapshot feature below, then it does nothing.

There are three workarounds I've learned:

Simple

Paste into something like Notes.app or TextEdit.app or pretty much anything but Pages. Then copy/paste that into Pages.

Better

If you create a Sheet that directly references a calculated cell you will be able to paste that into Pages. Numbers doesn't hunt for the formulae, it just puts the calculated cell value on the clipboard. (Thanks Ben O'Matic for the tip!)

Best - Apple actually fixed this

If you choose "Copy Snapshot" in Numbers (it's up on the File menu you and I never look at) it will copy the values, not the formulae. It will paste as a table in Numbers. There's actually documentation of this, but the AIs and Google couldn't find it -- until I figured it out. (How did I figure it out? I realized what Apple needed to do and then it occurred to me that maybe they had done it.)

What should Apple do?

I only found "Copy Snapshot" after I wondered how Apple could fix this. So it could be a bit easier to discover. Something like:

1. Make the "Copy Snapshot" behavior the default Copy behavior and fix the Cmd-Opt-Shift-V shortcut.
2. Make the current behavior a separate item (opt-copy?) called something like "Copy Dynamic".

Stop the stupid: Disabling Microsoft AutoUpdate on macOS as of Nov 2024

Microsoft AutoUpdate is painfully stupid. It makes my teeth hurt stupid.

No matter what setting I use, even after I tell it to "just update everything, I don't care, go away" it launches 100 times a day (ok, at least once, maybe more than that) and leaves an ugly notification window on top of my desktop. Invariably over something I need to get at.

The click to dismiss it is causing me great emotional pain.

I asked Perplexity how to get rid of it and it did as well as Google -- it gave me answers that ought to work but don't. We all know why that is.

This has worked for me.

1. Go to '/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MAU2.0'
2. Cmd-drag Microsoft AutoUpdate.app to desktop.
3. Create alias of MAU2.0 folder on desktop.

MAU will stop notifications. Every month or so (yearly?) I drag it into the folder, run update, then drag it out.

Sooner or later Microsoft might make MAU less stupid. My theory is MSFT devs / contractors hate Microsoft Office and want it to die faster.