Keep Numbers Aligned When Zooming

Who knew that this would still be a problem in Excel 2013? Almost 4 years ago, I posted about numbers not lining up, when Excel was zoomed to less than 80%

Now I’m working on a new laptop, and realized that the problem is back. In Excel 2013, I’m using the default font – Calibri 11. Here’s a list of numbers, at 80% zoom.

numberfont01

And here is the same list at 72% zoom – the numbers have changed to a proportional font, and the 1111111s are much narrower than the 8888888s.

numberfont02

Change the Registry

To fix the problem, I followed the instructions that I posted in April 2009, when I was setting up my previous laptop. Here they are again, with adjustments for Windows 8 and Office 2013. The original instructions came from this MSKB article:

Euro Currency Character Is Not Displayed Correctly in Excel 2003

This is really a fix for a Euro symbol display problem, but it also fixes the proportional font display.

Steps to Fix Problem

Here’s what I did for Win8 and Excel 15:

  • Make a backup copy of the registry before you tweak any settings
  • Quit any programs that are running.
  • Press the Window key and R, to open the Run window.
  • In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.

numberfont03

  • Locate, and then click to select the following registry key:
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Office/15.0/Excel/Options
  • With the Options key selected, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click DWORD (32-bit) Value.

numberfornt05

  • Type FontSub, and then press ENTER.
  • Right-click FontSub, and then click Modify.

numberfont06

  • In the Value data box, type 0. Since the value is zero, it doesn’t matter which Base you select – I left it on Hexadecimal.

numberfont07

  • Click OK to close the Edit DWORD window
  • On the File menu, click Exit to quit Registry Editor.
  • Start Excel, and the numbers should line up correctly, eve when zoomed.

numberfont08

___________________

0 thoughts on “Keep Numbers Aligned When Zooming”

  1. We really need find solution so Microsoft really fix these themselves instead of leaving it for users. I had so many clients bugged me about it as well since alignment error really is visible when you are working on a large data and you really have to zoom out.
    Shame this fix is PC related, and client would still see error when they open from their own PC. But, nevertheless, Thanks Debra, it is a great tip!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.