How to Use the Decimal Tab in Word 2016

Word 2010 For Dummies

Use the decimal tab in Word 2016 to line up columns of numbers. Although you can use a right tab for this job, the decimal tab is a better choice. Rather than right-align text, as the right tab does, the decimal tab aligns numbers by their decimal — the period in the number, as shown here.

Using the decimal tab to line up numbers.

Here's how to work with such a beast:

Start a blank line of text.
On the ruler, click the Tab gizmo until the decimal tab stop appears.

The Decimal Tab Stop icon is shown here.
Click the ruler to set the decimal tab stop.

You can adjust the position later.
Type the first column text.

This step is optional, although in the figure you see the first column as a list of items.
Press the Tab key.
Type the number.

The number is right-justified until you press the period key. After that, the rest of the number is left-justified.
End that line of text by pressing Enter.
Repeat Steps 4 through 7 for each line in the list.

You can make adjustments after the list is complete: Select all the lines in the list and then drag the decimal tab stop left or right.

When a line doesn't feature a period, text typed at a decimal tab stop is right-justified, as shown by the word Free in the figure.
This tab stop is used inside a table cell or column to align values.

About This Article

About the book author:

Dan Gookin has been writing about technology for 20 years. He has contributed articles to numerous high-tech magazines and written more than 90 books about personal computing technology, many of them accurate.
He combines his love of writing with his interest in technology to create books that are informative and entertaining, but not boring. Having sold more than 14 million titles translated into more than 30 languages, Dan can attest that his method of crafting computer tomes does seem to work.
Perhaps Dan’s most famous title is the original DOS For Dummies, published in 1991. It became the world’s fastest-selling computer book, at one time moving more copies per week than the New York Times number-one best seller (although, because it’s a reference book, it could not be listed on the NYT best seller list). That book spawned the entire line of For Dummies books, which remains a publishing phenomenon to this day.
Dan’s most recent titles include PCs For Dummies, 9th Edition; Buying a Computer For Dummies, 2005 Edition; Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies; Dan Gookin’s Naked Windows XP; and Dan Gookin’s Naked Office. He publishes a free weekly computer newsletter, “Weekly Wambooli Salad,” and also maintains the vast and helpful Web site www.wambooli.com.