Whenever you have a column of numbers, you must follow two rules:
- Numbers are always aligned by the decimal point, if one is present. In the absence of a decimal point, always align by the rightmost digit.
- If dollar signs are used, then you follow the “first-last rule”. According to this rule, you only dollar the first and last numbers in the column. All intervening numbers shall be without a dollar sign.
These rules must be followed anytime you have columns of numbers whether they are in tabular format in a word processing document, or in columns in a spreadsheet document, or in columns in a table of information in a data base report, and so forth.
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