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Aligning Numbers Using Proportional Spacing
DocumentID: 634268
Revision Date: 29-Feb-96 3:03:37 PM

The information in this document applies to:
WordPerfect® 5.1 for DOS

Problem

Symptoms: The customer has an HP LaserJet III and is using the CG Times Scalable 11pt font as his base font. He wants to line up columns of dollar figures using decimal tabs. He knows that CG Times is proportional, so he went into the PTR program and modified the HPLASIII.PRS. He went into Fonts, went into CG Times Scalable, Size & Spacing Information, Proportional Spacing Table, then changed the width of the dollar sign, comma, and space to equal the width of the numbers (which are all 6223). He created a document (using the modified .PRS file) where he has lined up columns of numbers using a decimal tab. In View Document, all the numbers line up on the right-hand side perfectly. But, when he prints, all the right-hand-side numbers line up except for the number that is a "million" number. Solutions: You can't change the width of a character by changing the width of it in the printer driver. The width of the character in the printer remains the same, only WP thinks it is a different size. The result is what your customer was experiencing. The tester was able to get him what he wants by using tabs to position his dollar sign and numbers. It looked like this:
[Tab]$[Tab][Dec Align]50,000[HRt]
[Tab]$[Tab][Dec Align]150,000[HRt]
[Tab]$[Tab][Dec Align]1,050,000[HRt]
This aligns the $ sign and the numbers in a fixed pitch or PS font if the commas are used in the numeric fashion (every third digit - i.e. 1,000).

Customers who are using fixed pitch fonts won't have the problem, but those who use proportionally-spaced fonts may have the problem if they try to decimal align large numbers. This problem should be logged as an enhancement request.

Answer:

Details:


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