09

Table Of Contents
Chapter 4 Working with Table Cells 103
Currency: Add this element to display a currency symbol. To identify the symbol you
want to use, click the disclosure triangle visible on the element when it’s in the format
eld and choose a symbol. You can maximize the choices in the pop-up menu by
selecting “Show complete list of currencies in Cells inspector in Numbers preferences.
Decimals: Add this element to format how decimal digits are displayed. See Dening
the Decimals Element of a Custom Number Format” on page 105 for more information.
Spaces: Use this element to control the amount of space displayed between elements.
Click the disclosure triangle visible on the element when it’s in the format eld and
choose an option. Normal adds a standard space, Wide adds an em space, and Narrow
adds a sixth of an em space. You can add more than one Spaces element to the format
eld with these options, but only one of the Spaces elements can be Flexible; this
option left-aligns the elements that precede it and right-aligns elements that follow it.
Scale: Use this element to size the display value of a number. For example, you can
display values over 100 as number of hundreds (1000 displays as 10). See Dening the
Scale of a Custom Number Format” on page 106 for more information.
5 To display predened text before or after any element, place an insertion point in the
format eld and then type your text. You can click any element and use the Left Arrow
and Right Arrow keys to place the insertion point.
6 To delete an element in the eld, select it and then press Delete.
To move the element around in the eld, drag it.
7 In the Name eld, type a name for your number format.
Custom format names are listed in the Cell Formats pop-up menu in the format bar
and in the Cell Format pop-up menu of the Cells inspector.
8 Click OK to save your number format and apply it to the selected cells.
Heres an example of a number format:
Balance:-$ #,### .##
The hyphen is a Spaces element, set to display one Normal space between the Â
currency symbol and the number.
The dollar sign is a Currency element. Â
#,### is an Integers element that displays numbers greater than 999 with a Â
thousands separator.
.## is a Decimals element. Â