Decimal Tab Alignment

If you have ever aligned numeric information in Word using decimal tabs, you know they can be very handy. The tabs even align text (with no decimal point) to the left of an assumed decimal point, with everything nice and tidy.

Unfortunately, Excel has no such similar feature as a "decimal tab." While it is very easy to get things lined up if they include decimals (at least if they contain the same number of digits to the right of the decimal), adding text into a cell can throw everything out of whack.

To closely approximate the behavior of decimal tab alignment, follow these steps:

1. Select the cells you want to format.
2. Display the Format Cells dialog box. (If you are using a version of Excel prior to Excel 2007, click Format | Cells. If you are using Excel 2007, display the Home tab of the ribbon and click the small icon at the bottom-right of the Number group.)
3. Make sure the Number tab is selected. (Click here to see a related figure.)
4. In the Category list, choose Custom.
5. In the Type box, enter the following format:

         _(* #,##0.00_);_(* (#,##0.00);_(* "-"??_);_(@_._0_0_)

6. Display the Alignment tab of the dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.)
7. Using the Horizontal drop-down list, choose Right.
8. Click on OK.

The format you are setting up in step 5 allows for two decimal places and parentheses around negative numbers. In addition, for text it leaves room after the text for a period, two zeros, and the optional closing bracket. Step 7 is necessary so that Excel pushes text up to the right end of the cell. Since the format you specified leaves room for the decimal point and everything after it, the text appears to align just to the left of where the period would appear.

Understand that this is only an approximation of the decimal tab alignment offered in Word. There are still a few things you can't do. In Word, if you enter text and it is decimal aligned, and the text includes a period, then the period is aligned as if it were a decimal point. If you put a period in the text entered in a cell that is formatted as directed above, the period will not be treated as a decimal point.