While you may not realize it, we all use the number of characters in a number to determine just how big or small it is. For example 1000000 written like this is harder to determine the magnitude of than 1,000,000. So when you want your users to be able to understand the numbers that you are working with not only is it handy to use commas to separate the digits but aligning the numbers using their decimal points allows a quick check of how big a number is by how far it extends towards the left hand side of the page.
When you are working in a table of figures Word provides a simple way of aligning numbers. Select the column in your table and from the Ruler bar (View, Ruler) click on the tab indicator in the top left corner by the ruler, until you see the Decimal tab option appear. When the Decimal tab indicator shows, click on the ruler where you want the decimal tab to appear in the column of numbers.
Align Decimals Word
In the Format sidebar, click the Style button near the top. If the text is in a text box, table, or shape, first click the Text tab at the top of the sidebar, then click the Style button. In the Alignment section, click the alignment buttons you want. Rather than right-align text, as the right tab does, the decimal tab aligns numbers by their decimal portion — that period in the number. Display the Ruler, if necessary. Click the View Ruler button to display the Ruler if it’s hidden. Start a blank line of text. See Peter's reply, but in a table cell you do not need to tab Control+Tab if there is no other content in the cell. Just set a Decimal Tab Stop at the spot on the Ruler at the point you want the decimal alignment to occur. Select the column (s) before setting the tab stops so you only have to set them once for each column.
Now when you type a number into that column it will be automatically aligned on the decimal tab and there’s no need to insert an actual tab character. Of course if you do want to include a tab character remember that you must hit Ctrl + Tab in a table because the Tab key simply moves you from one cell to the next and doesn’t actually add a tab character.
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Right Align Decimals In Word For Mac X
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