Formats for text and spacing

Text characters To display text characters, either enclose the characters in double quotation marks (" ") or precede them with a backslash (\). The following special characters are displayed without the use of quotation marks:

$ - + / ( ) : space

If you enter any of the following symbols, a backslash is inserted for you:

! ^ & ` (left single quotation mark) ' (right single quotation mark) ~ { } = < >

Spacing To create a space the width of a character in a number format, include an underscore followed by the character. For example, when you follow an underscore with a closing parenthesis ( _) ), positive numbers line up correctly with negative numbers that are enclosed in parentheses.

Text in numbers A text format section, if included, is always the last section in the number format. Include the at sign (@) character in the text section where you want to display any text entered in the cell. If the @ character is omitted from the text section, text you enter will not be displayed. If you want to always display specific text characters with the entered text, enclose the additional text in double quotation marks (" "); for example, "gross receipts for" @.

If the format does not include a text section, text you enter is not affected by the format.

Repeated characters To repeat the next character in the format to fill the column width, include an asterisk (*) in the number format. For example, type 0*- to include enough hyphens after a number to fill the cell.