tab align with a colon?

[punstress]

Hi, I'm trying to line up a timetable. Naturally, instead of decimal points,
I am using colons, such as 4:30, 12:30.

Using the decimal tab only makes it right-justify. How do I get it to align
to the colon? Please don't tell me to use a point instead of a colon because
we use AP style, which dictates a colon.

 

[Lene Fredborg]

The decimal tab stop should work. In a text string, a decimal tab stop will
align on the first character that is not numeric (in case a string contains a
thousands separator, that separator will be skipped).

The problem could be that you have right aligned the text. If that is the
case, try to change to left alignment.

--
Regards
Lene Fredborg
DocTools - Denmark
www.thedoctools.com
Document automation - add-ins, macros and templates for Microsoft Word

 

[punstress]

The text had been centered. It was copied over from a web page.

I looked up in help and found this:

A Decimal Tab stop aligns numbers around a decimal point. Without regard to
the number of digits, the decimal point remains in the same position. (When
you use this type of tab stop, you must align the numbers around a decimal
character. You cannot use any other type of character — such as a comma, a
hyphen, or an ampersand symbol.)

It doesn't seem I can use anything but a period.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Would you just try it, for heaven's sake? I can assure you that I have
numerous documents in which I have aligned times on the colon with a decimal
tab stop (in a table cell). Regardless of what Help tells you, the decimal
tab stop aligns on the first nonnumeric character other than the thousands
separator.

 

[Lene Fredborg]

I can make the alignment work with colons, hyphens, commas and semicolons
(but not with a period because it is a thousands separator in my system).

My explanation corresponds to the explanation given in this post:
http://groups.google.com/group/micr...4?lnk=st&q=word+align+colons#29c57a3caff5ba94

Have you tried turning on formatting marks (Ctrl+Shift+F8) to check to your
text does not contain additional tab character(s)? Also, if your text is in a
table, do not insert a tab character to indent the text, only add the decimal
tab in the desired position and the text should be aligned correctly around
the tab.

If the above does not help, I am af

--
Regards
Lene Fredborg
DocTools - Denmark
www.thedoctools.com
Document automation - add-ins, macros and templates for Microsoft Word

 

[punstress]

Your reply got cut off, but .. ctrl-shift-F8 did nothing for me. I do have
the show/hide paragraph symbol set to show, and there's no tabs in the cells.

Suddenly my first table aligned, I think what I did was hit Clear All Tabs,
even though there were none set up, but the next table I tried to format, the
dec tab has absolutely NO effect.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Note that in a table you do not need a tab character with a decimal tab stop
*unless* there are other tab stops; then it gets kind of kinky, and you just
have to sort it out by trial and error.