As described in the previous section, you can use the direct commands of the command group Number on the ribbon tab Home to choose the number format of a cell, allowing you to specify exactly how numbers entered in this cell should be displayed. For advanced options, you can also open the dialog box by clicking the group arrow
in the bottom right corner of the command group Number.
The following number formats are available:
Default
Displays the number just the way it was entered.
More precisely: The number is displayed right-aligned. Apart from that, no further reformatting takes places. Right of the decimal point, all decimal places that have been entered are shown (with a maximum of five decimal places).
| Example: | 42 |
Real Number
Same as the Default number format, except that you can specify several formatting options (see previous section, options of the dialog box). For example, you can set the number of decimal places to be displayed.
| Example: | 42.00 |
Note: The number will only be displayed rounded, but actually is not rounded. However, it still keeps all of its decimal places. To actually round the number, use arithmetic functions like the ROUND function.
Currency
Displays the number with a currency symbol and two decimal places.
Only available via the dialog box: You can select the desired currency from the Currency list box.
| Example: | 42.00 € |
Note: Depending on the country settings of your system, the display may differ.
Accounting
Same as the Currency number format (see above), except that numbers are displayed in accounting format.
The difference to the currency format is that negative amounts have the minus sign in the left cell margin, separated from the number. Currency symbols are also aligned flush with each other.
| Example: | - 42.00 € |
Note: Depending on the country settings of your system, the display may differ.
Date/Time
Displays the number as date and/or time.
Only available via the dialog box: In the Format list box, various different date and time formats are offered, depending on your system's regional settings.
Directly via the dropdown list of the command group Number:
▪Short date: The date is displayed in the 11/22/2018 format
▪Long date: The date is displayed in the Thursday, November 22, 2018 format
▪Time: The time is displayed in the 22:30:00 format
Percentage
Displays the number as a percentage.
Apart from adding a percent sign (%) to the number, the number will also be displayed multiplied by 100. For example, 0.5 will be displayed as 50%.
| Example: | 4200% |
Scientific
Displays the number in scientific notation.
| Examples: | 5E+03 (equals 5 * 10^3, which is 5000) |
| 4.2E-01 (equals 4.2 * 10^-1, which is 0.42) |
Fraction
Displays the number as a fraction.
Only available via the dialog box: The format of the fraction can be selected in the Format list box.
Note: The number will be displayed as a rounded value, if necessary. For example, if you choose the format As halves and enter the number 2.3, it will be displayed as 2 1/2.
| Examples: | 2 1/2 |
| 5 9/10 |
Boolean
Displays the number as a Boolean value (logical value).
If the number is zero, FALSE will be displayed. If it is any other value, TRUE will be displayed.
| Examples: | TRUE |
| FALSE |
Text
This number format presents a special case: It forces PlanMaker to treat a number as text – not as a number.
The number will be left-aligned and displayed exactly the way it was entered. As opposed to any other number format, numbers will not be reformatted on input by any means. Leading zeros will not be removed; dates will not be reformatted automatically, etc.
This can be useful, for example, when entering numbers with leading zeros (e.g. serial numbers). Normally, when you enter a number like "00043682" into a cell, PlanMaker will automatically remove the three leading zeros. If you apply the Text number format to the cell, the leading zeros will persist.
Warning: For compatibility reasons, this number format has been implemented exactly the same way as in Microsoft Excel. Therefore, it will lead to the same unexpected results in calculations:
When you apply this format e.g. to the cells A1 and A2, the result of the calculation A1+A2 will be the sum of these two cells. However, the calculation SUM (A1:A2) will return zero. The reason is that, for most arithmetic functions, text always has the "value" zero!
Custom
Only via the dialog box: Displays the number in a user-defined number format.
For more information, see the next section.