Decimal Point Vertical Alignment in Excel 2003

[Gatsby]

I have a column where I am putting in numbers with two decimal places.
On the toolbar I have aligned the column to fill in the numbers at 'Centre'.
The problem is:
If I put in a figure of say, 755.26 in a cell and in the cell underneath, I
put in 30.23, the decimal points don't line up.
If I align the figures to the right, everything is ok, but I want the
figures to be in the centre of the column.

The column just looks 'untidy' with the decimal points not lining up
vertically as I progress down the column.

Any ideas would be most appreciated,
Thanks,
Gatsby

 

[Bernard Liengme]

It either centred or right aligned. No combination is possible. You could
add a small, blank column to the left to make print out 'prettier'
best wishes

 

[Gatsby]

It either centred or right aligned. No combination is possible. You could
add a small, blank column to the left to make print out 'prettier'
best wishes
--
Bernard V Liengme
Microsoft Excel MVP
www.stfx.ca/people/bliengme
remove caps from email




Thanks for taking the trouble to reply, Bernard.

Why don't they line up, vertically, do you know?
Gatsby

 

[Bernard Liengme]

The numbers are centered based on how much space they take up - in text like
form. The decimal is taken to be just a character with a small width.
best wishes

 

[MartinW]

Hi Gatsby,

You may be able to get your desired result by forgetting the
centre alignment and go to right or general,
then in number select custom and try these,
0.00?
0.00 ?
0.00 ?
0.00 ?
etc.

HTH
Martin

 

[Gatsby]

I understand now, Bernard, thanks.
I noticed that if I changed the the figure on the underneath cell, in the
example, from 30.23 to 130.23, the decimael point aligns with the one above.

Maybe Microsoft will introduce a 'wider decimal point character', in the
future, that would do away with this problem.
Surely I'm not the only Microsoft user that has had this problem?

Gatsby.

 

[Bernard Liengme]

No, that would not work. Try 12.34 in A1 and 123.45 in A2
Now format them Courier (a fixed width font where all characters have the
same width). Still the decimal is unaligned since we have 5 characters in A1
and 6 in A2

You might like to try formatting with Accounting (generally you get this
with the Currency symbol ($ in US and Canada) on toolbar. Now select the
cells; use Format | Format Cells (shortcut CTRL+1) and on the Number tab
select Accounting with Symbol None. This may give you a more pleasing
effect.
best wishes

 

[MartinW]

I just checked the web version and it lost the formatting
that I was trying to show.

This is what I meant.
Use a custom format of 0.00?
Then start putting spaces in between the last 0 and ?
The amount of spaces you need depends on the width
of your column.

HTH
Martin