This tab allows you to select the format for the cell's
contents. You can select one of the many preset formatting styles
which should be be more than adequate for the vast majority of cases. If none
of these meet the needs of the user, it is possible to create your own
formats.
To use one of the preset formats, select the format category
(such as Number or Date) by
clicking on the corresponding radiobutton in the left
side of the dialog. The right side of the dialog will show you how
the selected cell would look with this format and give more options
for the selected format.
The following is a list of all available format categories:
General
A swiss army knife of a format. It will attempt
to display a value it the 'best' way possible.
The choice of format depends on the size of the cell
and Gnumeric
guess of what 'type' of value is
being displayed (number, date, time ...).
Number
Displays numbers with 0-30 digits after the decimal
place. Negatives can be displayed normally, within
parentheses, or in red color. Optionally a delimiter
can be added every third order of magnitude (thousand,
million, ...). Both the decimal point and the
thousands separator have internationalization support.
Currency
Similar to Number, with the addition of a
currency symbol. Currently known symbols
include $,
¥,
£,
¤
and the three letter abbreviations of all major
currencies. By default, Gnumeric
will use currency symbol and placement (before or after the
number) appropriate for your locale.
Accounting
A specialization of
Currency which pays more attention
to the alignment of negative numbers. It ensures that
a small amount of space is prepended to positive
numbers so that they align with negatives.
Date
This category contains various formats for
presenting dates. By default,
Gnumeric will use date format
appropriate for your locale (country and language setting). You
can also choose one of many
possible date formats shown in the list in the right side of
the dialog. The following is an explanation of codes used in
these formats:
d: day of month (one or two
digits). Example: 9.
dd: day of month (two
digits). Example: 09.
ddd: day of week. Example: Wed.
m: month (number, one or two
digits). Example: 3.
mm: month (number, two
digits). Example: 03.
mmm: month (abbreviated
name). Example: Mar.
mmmm: month (full
name). Example: March.
yyyy: year (four digits). Example: 1967.
yy: last two digits of year. Example: 67.
Some date formats also include time using the codes
explained below. Examples of date formatting are shown in Table 9-1.
Time
This category contains various formats for
presenting time of day. You can choose one of many
possible time formats shown in the list in the right side of
the dialog. The following is an explanation of codes used in
these formats:
h: hours.
mm: minutes.
ss: seconds.
Sometimes it is necessary to display more than 24 hours, or
more that 60 minutes/seconds without the values incrementing
the display unit of the next larger measure (e.g., 25 hours
instead of 1 day + 1 hour). To achieve this, use codes
'[h]', '[mm]', and '[ss]'. Examples of time formatting are shown in Table 9-2.
Percentage
Multiplies a value by 100 and appends a percent.
Can be used with 0-30 digits after the decimal place.
Fractions
Approximate the value with a rational number with either
a specific denominator or with a maximum number of digits
in the denominator.
Scientific
Formats the value using scientific notation,
e.g. 5.334 E 6 for
5,334,000. Allows up to 30
digits after the decimal place. No provision
for controlling the exponent are provided at this time.
Text
Treats numeric values as text. This will show a
number with as much precision as available and will
lose knowledge of whether it represented a date, or
time.
TIP
If your workbook contains serial numbers, ID numbers or
other similar entries, choose
Text format for them. If you choose
General or Number
format, Gnumeric will remove leading
zeros, so that 01124 will be shown as
1124.
Custom
This category allows you to define your own
format. This is only recommended for advanced users as
it requires understanding of the codes internally used
by Gnumeric for describing
formats. To make it easier, this category provides a
list of codes for all predefined formats so you can
create our own format by modifying one of them rather
than starting from scratch.