Not true. Microsoft Office default to the Windows Regional settings of the operating system. You can manually set your regional settings to have numbers display almost any format you wish.
If you read the documents I linked to you will see that the space as the thousands separator does not apply to financial documents. So whatever format you use for financial documents does not apply for technical and common usage. SI rules require spaces. Anyway, all those commas make big numbers look cluttered and a naked decimal is simply innumerate. From: [email protected] Sent: Monday, 2014-07-14 00:42 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:54119] RE: Don't be a dunce! Default Excel US setting is commas to separate digits into groups of three because that is what people in the United States commonly use. I was taught that in school and it is what we use at work. I process financial contracts for the State of Oregon. News articles, TV news, banks, et cetera all use commas to separate digits into groups of three here in the United States. It would be great if everyone on the planet used the same scheme, but the world is a messy place. ----- Message from Michael Payne <[email protected]> --------- Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 06:20:53 +0200 From: Michael Payne <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] Subject: [USMA:54115] RE: Don't be a dunce! To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> Not so. http://physics.nist.gov/Pubs/SP811/sec07.html#7.2 Somewhere in there! I had it marked in my copy at home, and I’m not home for a couple of weeks. NIST recommends: 123 456 789.987 654 321 Your present format 123,456,789.987654321 Comma format 123 456 789,987 654 321 Because of differing world standards, different countries use the comma or dot as the decimal marker, others use the dot or comma as the thousand separator, it’s important to be able to communicate what you mean. NIST has established the standard as being a space for separating thousands and leaving the option of a dot or comma as the decimal point. Excel can be set up to show the spacing. Format>Cells>number select “use 1000 separator”. I’ve got my computer set up to use the space as the 1000 separator just by setting it up that way. In word you can shift/space bar and it will give you an invisible space that will hold a number together on a line. Mike Payne On 14 Jul 2014, at 04:51, [email protected] wrote: Harold. Americans use commas or spaces. We love our freedom. ----- Message from Harold_Potsdamer <[email protected]> --------- Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 20:07:41 -0400 From: Harold_Potsdamer <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] Subject: [USMA:54113] RE: Don't be a dunce! To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> Not only that, commas dividing thousands which should be spaces. From: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, 2014-07-13 14:26 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:54111] RE: Don't be a dunce! No zeroes on the leading decimals? Tsk tsk tsk. :) -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [USMA:54110] Don't be a dunce! From: [email protected] Date: Sun, July 13, 2014 11:22 am To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> Posted on Facebook and Twitter today: Don't be a dunce! http://MetricPioneer.com/Metrication-America David Pearl www.MetricPioneer.com 503-428-4917 ----- End message from Harold_Potsdamer <[email protected]> ----- David Pearl www.MetricPioneer.com 503-428-4917 ----- End message from Michael Payne <[email protected]> ----- David Pearl www.MetricPioneer.com 503-428-4917
