node 8149 — Typophile archive

unknown

I'm doing a form with a few columns.. an invoice. The columns include things like Date, a Services description, and Time spent. These look nice left-aligned, but then I get to the Amount column. If I left align everything, the decimals won't align. Some figures are just 20.00, others are 200.00, so if I align the decimals, I can't left-align it. Anyone have suggestions? Right now I'm just left aligning "Amount" on the longest figure, with the decimals aligning. But this makes Amount look centered, so I'm wondering what my alternatives are. :-) Thanks!

unknown

Personally I'd darken the column for the amount and drop the title all together. Without seeing it it's difficult to say, but given the subject of the table (an invoice) provided the emphasis is placed on the column it's unlikely the reader would misunderstand the figures were the cost.

If you are worried about that then I'd suggest you seperate the cost into two columns (second one for the decimals) then right align the cost column, left align the decimals next to it, and right align the title against the right edge of the cost column.