The easiest way (and I believe the right way) is to create the Excel file in
the format of the location you are creating the Excel file in...

So if your system uses comma as thousand separator and dot as decimal then
use that... when any one with European settings (. for thousand seperators
and , for decimal point) opens the workbook, Excel will display the correct
value with the correct format...

If you are sending in XML then your definition should indicate the number
format so that any one reading it can apply appropriate transformations...


" wrote:

Hi,

I'm generating an excel report using xml transformed by xslt into html
(but saved as a .xls file) that is sent out to a large number of my
business's clients, mainly in Europe.The specification for the report
is that numbers should be shown in European format (. for thousand
seperators and , for decimal point). All was fine until I noticed
that one column of figures had a value that was sometimes was 10 times
larger than it should have been. After investigating further it
appears that if the number is greater than 1 with at least 4 decimal
places, excel treats the decimal point as a thousands seperator and
moves it.

E.g the correct value was 2,2567, excel turned it into 22,567

The easiest way to reproduce is to create an html document that just
shows the value 1,2345 & then drag it into excel.

I know I can change the international settings and all will then work
but because this is being sent out to many external people I want to
ensure they all see the correct value. How can I force excel to show
the number I want correctly?

Thanks for any help,

Stickleback