Forum Discussion
align decimals in a column
I'm using Excel 2007, but I was astounded to find there is no way to align numbers by decimal point. The only option I have is left align or right align. I was careful to format all the number columns as numbers, but it doesn't seem to make any difference at all in alignment. You'll notice the alignment is scattered all over the place in the two tables.
What am I missing?
Thanks!
Greetings, Damien!
I'm still not sure I believe this, but I tried using "General" alignment, with no indent, and all the decimals aligned perfectly. Go figure. You would think, though, that a leading spreadsheet program like Excel would have the option to align decimals!
Thanks for your input.
Jonni
16 Replies
You can use Custom Format and place ???.??? This will center the .
You just need the make sure that the number of ? before and after the comma match with the max number of digits you might need.Some of your cells have an indent of 0 e.g. F8, others have an indent of 1 e.g.F4 to F6.
A different indent will impact the alignment of the decimal point, even if all numbers have 2 decimals and are right-aligned.
Hi Jonni
As far as my experience goes, I don't think you've missed anything and I suggest it's best to use the (left) align option as you have touched on.
I've done that to your workbook as attached.
Because you are using 2 decimal places, it makes sense to go left.
Using the Accounting format will also give you a left alignment and $ sign on the right.
Maybe someone else may have a better answer, but I think given you have a very simple table of data, the quickest and easiest fix is left align.
Hope that helps.
Cheers
Damien
Damien, for me, accounting formats have the $ sign on the left and the numbers are right-aligned. All numbers are right-aligned by default. Do you see numbers left-aligned?
- No no. As mentioned above, I meant to say RIGHT, but said LEFT instead. I knew what I meant, but unfortunately my fingers didn't get the memo when I typed it out!
Greetings, Damien!
I'm still not sure I believe this, but I tried using "General" alignment, with no indent, and all the decimals aligned perfectly. Go figure. You would think, though, that a leading spreadsheet program like Excel would have the option to align decimals!
Thanks for your input.
Jonni
Can you post a screenshot of this? General does not align by decimal point. Excel does not have such a functionality. You need to format all cells with the same number of decimals and align them to the right, then the decimal points will be aligned correctly.
