ACC: Currency Format Causes Report Alignment Problems

• Microsoft Access versions 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 7.0

SUMMARY

Novice: Requires knowledge of the user interface on single-user computers.

In a report, if you set the Format property of a number control to Currency, you may have difficulty aligning the formatted numbers with numbers that are not formatted to Currency. For example, if you format totals in a group footer section to Currency but do not format the numbers above or below the total, the unformatted numbers may not align with the formatted numbers.

MORE INFORMATION

Currency amounts in the detail section may not always have a currency prefix ($), but the total amount in the group footer usually will have the prefix, as in the following example:

   (detail section)
         Doodads      4.50
         Widgets     10.00

   (group footer)
         Total:    $ 14.50

To correct this behavior, set the Format property of the number controls to a user-defined format, rather than Currency, for the totals in your report. You can enter a user-defined format in the Format property of a text box.

You can use "$#,##0.00" (without the quotation marks) for the Format property of a number when you want to display the dollar sign, and use "#,##0.00" (without the quotation marks) for the Format property of a number when the dollar sign is not required. These examples format the numbers in your report to use the comma as the thousands separator and format each number to have two decimal places. Numbers formatted in this manner will be aligned correctly in the report.

REFERENCES

Microsoft Access "Language Reference," version 1.0, pages 206 and 215-216

For more information in Microsoft Access version 1.x, search for "Format, Format$ Functions" using the Help menu.