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ICT Skills 4

Do you know how to change decimal and thousand separators in Excel? (22/32)

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Different Types of Separators

Translators know that, depending on the target country of their translation and on the language they are working with, the numbers "12,345", "12.345", "12,345.678", and "12.345,678" may have different interpretations, since the decimal and thousands separators vary from one language to another.

  • In countries speaking Romance languages the comma is used as decimal separator, while the thousands are separated by a space, e.g. 1 234 567,89
  • In German speaking countries the thousands are separated by a dot "." and the decimal separator is a comma "," e.g. 1.234.567,89.
  • English-speaking countries, on the other hand, use the comma as thousands separator and the dot as the decimal separator, e.g. 1,234,567.89.

Defining Separators

However, not all translators know that the separators used in a file are often changed automatically according to the regional settings in the Microsoft Windows Control Panel. For example, when figures containing decimal separators are typed into a worksheet, Excel changes the separator according to the Windows regional settings. In order to avoid this, you can define the separator you want to use when translating text within Excel.

  1. Select Tools|Options.
  2. In the dialogue box that opens, select the International tab.
  3. In the Number handling section you see the check box Use system separators. If you check this box, you will be using the decimal and thousands separators corresponding to the default language of your operating system.
    If you uncheck this option, you will be able to type in the Decimal separator and Thousands separator boxes the characters you will use as separators.

Note: For a permanent solution, you must change the regional settings in the Windows Control Panel.

Why is this information important for translators and translation teachers?
Highlighting data on worksheets is particularly interesting for translators when translating an Excel document, because they can, for example, differentiate already translated and checked terms from those not yet checked, or simply mark relevant translation information in a text.

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