Tip of the Week: Decimal Align Numbers in Table Cells
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Ever need to align numbers in a table based on their decimal points? You might wonder if such a thing is even possible, since you usually don’t have any tabs in your table. But, you can still align text based on a specific character, like a decimal point in a number. Here’s how.
First, make sure the text is left-aligned in the Paragraph Options. Now select the table cells or columns that hold the numbers.
Then, even though you haven’t typed any tabs, choose Type > Tabs to open up the tab options.
Finally, choose the “align on decimal”-tab and click on the ruler to set the position.
You’ll notice your numbers start aligning automatically.
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That’s a good feature. I discovered it about three or four years ago (by accident). It had gotten tiresome putting tabs in there with the shift tab (or option tab–I forget which).
Bart,
What typeface are you using in the screenshots?
Thanks,
LTM
Hi Lindsey- It’s Source Code Pro. If you don’t have it, you can get it here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/sourcecodepro.adobe/files/
Here’s a tricky one I dealt with a while ago – any suggestions on how to get those numbers nicely aligned to the right, without adjusting tracking?
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/430620/DotLeader_AlignRight_Blurred.jpg
Not sure what font do you have, but opentype fonts often have a “tabular lining” option, which would help in this case.
Hi ThesSlapster,
In Try changing your Kerning Optical to metric or vice versa.
I’m surprised people didn’t know about this before, it’s been in Word, Quark, Corel and other software for a long time.
Maybe it’s a bit obscure being hidden in the Tab Ruler – but even still, you can find the information in the Paragraph Style under Tabs.
Hi Bart,
Indonesian decimal system is using “,” rather than “.”.
How arrange this alignment for this system?
Thanks & regards,
MMN
You can change the aligning character when using the “Align to” tab.
That setting is found in the Tabs palette:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/e2uhiffxgq3ohjd/align-to-tab_aligning-character.png
I have a pretty specific requirement (picture attached). I need to align a $ on the left and decimal align a range of numbers on the right. I need to align two “,” and just to throw it in there I have some numbers within a parenthesis. I really do not want to have to manually align these. Anyone have a solution?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/e2y2vebqil5iedu/Decimal-Align.png?dl=0
Hi Bart, thank you for the tip.
I’d like to know how to add red bullets (aligned left) on the left of the decimal aligned text.
I treid adding a new paragraph style but if i apply the bullets then the tabulation does not work! I have no idea how ti fix this.
Thank you,
Lorenzo
I tried it with numbers in separate cells, and it doesn’t align them to decimal. If I put the numbers all in the same cell, then it will align to decimal. Is there a way to do it when they’re each in separate cells?
It worked great, except for lines with superscript. Those only right aligned and did not decimal align. Any tips?