XL2000: Currency Style Button Applies Accounting Number Format (213926)

SYMPTOMS

When you click the Currency Style button on the Formatting toolbar (you may have to click More Buttons to see the Currency Style button), the currency symbol is left-aligned to the cell instead of appearing immediately left of the numbers.

CAUSE

This problem can occur when you click the Currency Style button and the cell width is greater than the number of characters that are in the cell.

The Currency Style button applies the Accounting number format to the cell that you have selected and adds a currency symbol. The Accounting number format will automatically use all of the space available to it in a cell.

RESOLUTION

If you want to change the number format that is applied to the cell when you click Currency Style on the Formatting toolbar, you must change the formatting options set for the Currency style.

For example, to have the Currency Style button apply the Currency number format with two decimal places, follow these steps:

On the Format menu, click Style.
In the Style name box, select Currency.
Click Modify.
On the Number tab, under Category, click Currency, and then click OK.
Click OK.

WORKAROUND

To work around this behavior, use the Currency number format. When you use the Currency number format, the currency symbol will appear immediately to the left of the numbers. To use the Currency number format, follow these steps:

Select the cell(s) that you want to format.
On the Format menu, click Cells.
On the Number tab, under Category, select Currency, and then click OK.

MORE INFORMATION

By default, both the Currency Style and Comma Style buttons apply Accounting number formats. For example, if you type the number 1234.56 in an unformatted cell, and then widen the column so that it is much wider than necessary to fit this number, you will get results similar to the following (based on the toolbar button that you click).

   Toolbar button          Result
   ------------------------------------

   Currency Style          $   1,234.56
   Comma Style                 1,234.56

Note that the accounting number format applied by both of these toolbar buttons will add enough blank spaces to fill the entire column width. These spaces may not be noticeable when you use the Comma style. If you apply an underline to the cell, the underline will run the full width of the column, even though the number you have may only go part of the way across the cell. If you select a cell to which you have applied the Comma style and then click Underline on the Standard toolbar, your results may be similar to the following:

____1,234.56