Number Alignment problem in Report (AccessXP)

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I am working with a report to be used to display my organizations quarterly financials. We need to use the following custom number format, #,##0;(#,##0);-

The problem is that because negative numbers are in parentheses, they no longer line up with the positive numbers down the column. I have tried placing extra spaces behind the positive number format, but Access just ignores them. In Excel you can place the underscore character at the end of the format to force the numbers over, but that also doesn’t seem to work in Access.

Does anyone know a way to make the positive and negative numbers align on the digits even when the negatives are in parentheses?

TIA!

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I have Access 2002 SP-2. If the text box has General or Right alignment, Access adds the extra space after a positive number automatically, so that the digits of positive and negative numbers align perfectly. What is the experience of other users?

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My experience is the same as Hans (but I’m using Access 2002 SP-2 also).

If your version of Access isn’t aligning things the way you want, you might try using a fixed-pitch (non-proportional) font (e.g., Courier New). Even if Access is adding the spaces, a space may take up less horizontal space than a parenthesis for a proportional font and you’ll have alignment problems. If Access doesn’t appear to be adding the spaces, then I think you can add them yourself to the custom format; e.g., ” “#,##0” “;(#,##0), but make sure you General or Right align the field.

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