Decimal places

[George Katritzky]

I use Quattro 10 with Windows XP and I have tables with three types of
column ie dates, whole numbers and 2-decimal place numbers.

I have not yet discovered how to ensure that every number placed in a column
conforms to the type of number for that column.

For example, every so often a figure entered in the two-decimal place column
comes up as a whole number, and vice versa. The dates rarely go wrong.

This not a matter of life and death, but merely an irritation, which also
arose when I had Windows 98. I am curious to learn what I am doing wrong and
whether it can be corrected.

George Katritzky

[Mark Strzyzewski]

Here are a couple of steps that should accomplish what you need.
1. Select (Highlight) the number you want to fix at two decimal places.
2. On the toolbar, you should see a box that says "Normal." Click the drop
down and select Comma. This will format all the number in a comma format
fixed to two decimal places, ie: 123,456.70

or

2. Right click on the selected region and choose "Selection Properties.
Click the Numeric Format tab. Select "Number" from the list and set the
number of decimal places to what you need.

Mark

--
Mark Strzyzewski
C_Tech Volunteer - WP Office Suite
For the benefit of all, please keep the discussion to the newsgroup.
PSA: Please Do not attach files to postings in these newsgroups.

[JW]

Mark's message answers a different question from the one George asked. I
occasionally experience the same problem as George, in Win98SE. Separate
columns may be formatted for different numerical formats, but there is no
guarantee that a new entry will comply with the format of the column in
which the cell lies. Perhaps there's a difference between formatting the
whole of a column, which sometimes is not recommended, and formatting the
column only within the active part of the spreadsheet. If it's a common
problem, is there a solution?

John Weiss

"Mark Strzyzewski" <mstrzy...@walkermeth.org> wrote in message
news:3zdwhd1uuzkt.1vtnhi36sc35v$.dlg@40tude.net...

[George Katritzky]

Many thanks to Mark and John for their response to my enquiry of 22
November.

I have followed Mark's advice to use "Normal" in the toolbar, but I have
highlighted the whole column of the table, including lines for which a
number has not yet been entered. This has changed all existing numbers in
the column to the desired format and has so far also ensured that numbers
subsequently added to that column all had the correct number of decimal
places.

On the other hand, using "Selection Properties" always works for changing a
single number, but does not work for a whole column of numbers.

Kind regards George Katritzky

[David Wheeler]

JW wrote:
> Mark's message answers a different question from the one George asked. I
> occasionally experience the same problem as George, in Win98SE. Separate
> columns may be formatted for different numerical formats, but there is no
> guarantee that a new entry will comply with the format of the column in
> which the cell lies. Perhaps there's a difference between formatting the
> whole of a column, which sometimes is not recommended, and formatting the
> column only within the active part of the spreadsheet. If it's a common
> problem, is there a solution?
>
> John Weiss
>

Maybe not a solution but a work-around. I often need to format
selections to 1,2 or 3 decimal places. I wrote three 1-line macros (eg
'{Setproperty Numeric_Format;"Fixed;1;Australia;0"} ) and assigned them
to buttons on the tool-bar. It doesn't stop the problem but it makes
the cure much quicker.

cheers,
David