On Thu, 23 Jul 2009 12:03:09 -0700 Came this utterance formulated by Lew Merrick to my mailbox:
> Michael, > > On Wed, 22 Jul 2009 19:23:43 -0700 > > Came this utterance formulated by Lew Merrick to my mailbox: > > > > > >> All, > >> > >> Engineering data standards for metric values insist on (A) a > >leading > zero for all numbers with an absolute value less than 1, > >and (B) no > trailing zeros. It would be very "nice" if OpenOffice > >would support > such a formatting intrinsically. ??? > >> > >> The tradition for English/Imperial numeric values is that the > >number> of decimal places defines the nominal tolerance assigned to > >it. Thus,> a value expressed as X.XXX has a different meaning than > >one expressed> as X.XX or X.X. Further, American standard practice > >(and, I believe> -- but am not positive, British Standard practice) > >calls for no> leading zeros. Adherence to these standards helps > >avoid confusion in> a bi-dimensional world. The American standard > >defining this is> ASME/ANSI Y14.5. > >> > >> > > > > All these are possible by manipulating the number format, as are > > less common options like thousands seperators. The documentation is > > here: > > > > http://documentation.openoffice.org/ > > > > I'd reply with more precise instructions but you have not said if > > you are try to apply these to Calc or Writer. For instance in Calc > > look to Format - Cells in the menu. There is no such menu item in > > Writer. > > The primary "issue" for me is with Writer. Spreadsheets are rarely > submitted where such distinctions matter. There is a Table, Number > format option in Writer, but it only allows you to specify: leading > zeros or not, decimal places presented, thousands separator, and > negative numbers in red. The format options in Calc have the same > limitations. > There are more options than that, the number format string can be manually edited. Leading and trailing zeros can be forced, try "0.000" and ".000" as examples. Works for me as far back as OO.o 1.1 (my oldest version). -- Michael All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well - Julian of Norwich 1342 - 1416 --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
