Format Columns and Cells dialog - Column tab

To access the Columns tab of the Format Columns and Cells dialog, either:

• Right-click a column in the middle section of the resource usage view and select Format Column.
• On the Fields tab of the Resource Usage Properties dialog, click Format to the right of a column.

Field	Description
Category	Select the category of information you want to format. The fields that appear to the right depend on the category that you select, as described below.   'General'-type cells have no specific formatting, so no fields are displayed when you select the 'General' category.

The following fields are displayed when you select the 'Number' category:

Field	Description
Decimal places	Select the number of decimal places to display.
Use 1000 separator	Select this check box if you want to use a punctuation mark to separate thousands (for example 5,000), or clear the check box to display numbers without a thousand separator (for example 5000).
Negative numbers	Specify whether you want to display negative numbers in parentheses (for example (500.23)) or preceded by a minus symbol (for example -500.23).

The following fields are displayed when you select the 'Currency' category:

Field	Description
Decimal places	Select the number of decimal places to display.
Currency unit	Select the currency unit in which to display amounts. Amounts that have been entered in different currencies are converted into the selected currency using the exchange rates specified on the Currency Unit Properties dialog.
Negative numbers	Specify whether you want to display negative numbers in parentheses (for example (500.23)) or preceded by a minus symbol (for example -500.23).

The following fields are displayed when you select the 'Percentage' category:

Field	Description
Decimal places	Select the number of decimal places to display.

The following fields are displayed when you select the 'Duration/Effort' category:

Field	Description
Decimal places	Select the number of decimal places to display.
Time units	Select the time unit in which to display durations and effort. Note that durations that have been entered in elapsed time cannot be displayed in working time, even if you select a working time unit in this field.
Calendar	Select a calendar to display durations and effort using the time unit override specific to that calendar.   Each calendar can specify an override for each working time unit, defining its precise length in that calendar. For example, a working week may differ in length from one calendar to another, depending on the work patterns used by the calendars.   If the selected calendar has no override specified, Asta Powerproject uses the override specified for the calendar of the task or bar in question; if no override is specified here, Asta Powerproject uses the default number of seconds for the selected time unit.
Duration format	Select the format in which to display durations and effort: Select Compact (4:2) to display durations and effort using the compact abbreviations that have been specified for each time unit on the Time Unit Properties dialog (which may be characters such as exclamation marks or asterisks). Select Decimal (4.00d, 4.40w) to display durations and effort as a decimal number of the selected time unit, using the exact number of decimal places you have specified (even if these are zeroes), for example 4.60w, 11.75m or 2.00y. Select Decimal (4d, 4.4w) to display durations and effort as a decimal number of the selected time unit, using as few decimal places as possible (up to the maximum number you have specified) for example 4.6w, 11.75m or 2y. Select Mixed time units (4w 2d) to display durations and effort using a combination of time units, for example 4w 3d or 2d 11h.
Do not show time unit	Select this check box to display durations and effort without any time units, or clear the check box to display these amounts with the appropriate time units.

The following fields are displayed when you select the 'Date/Time' category:

Field	Description
Date formats	Select the format in which to display dates and times.   If none of the existing formats suits your requirements, select Custom in this field and enter your own custom format in the field below.
Custom date format	If you have selected Custom in the Date formats field, enter your own custom date format in this field, using any of the custom date formatting fields listed in the following table.

Custom date formatting field	Description	Example
d	Day of month as digits with no leading zero for single-digit days.	2, 12
dd	Day of month as digits with a leading zero for single-digit days.	02, 12
ddd	Day of week as a three-letter abbreviation.	Mon, Fri
dddd	Day of week as its full name.	Monday, Friday
M	Month as digits with no leading zero for single-digit months.	6, 10
MM	Month as digits with a leading zero for single-digit months.	06, 10
MMM	Month as a three-letter abbreviation.	Jun, Oct
MMMM	Month as its full name.	June, October
y	Year as last two digits with no leading zero for years less than 10.	5, 11
yy	Year as last two digits with a leading zero for years less than 10.	05, 11
yyyy	Year as all four digits.	2005, 2011
gg	Period/era string.	AD, BC
h	Hours with no leading zero for single-digit hours; 12-hour clock.	9, 11
hh	Hours with a leading zero for single-digit hours; 12-hour clock.	09, 11
H	Hours with no leading zero for single-digit hours; 24-hour clock.	9, 23
HH	Hours with a leading zero for single-digit hours; 24-hour clock.	09, 23
m	Minutes with no leading zero for single-digit minutes.	3, 56
mm	Minutes with a leading zero for single-digit minutes.	03, 56
s	Seconds with no leading zero for single-digit seconds.	8, 37
ss	Seconds with a leading zero for single-digit seconds.	08, 37
t	AM/PM time-marker string as a single-letter abbreviation.	A, P
tt	AM/PM time-marker string as a two-letter abbreviation.	AM, PM
q	Year quarter as digits.	1, 2, 3, 4
R	Third of month as its full name with initial capitals.	Early, Mid, Late
r	Third of month as its full name without initial capitals.	early, mid, late
W	ISO 8601 week number (week 1 is the first week in the year to contain a Thursday) with no leading zero for single-digit weeks.	3, 24
WW	ISO 8601 week number (week 1 is the first week in the year to contain a Thursday) with a leading zero for single-digit weeks.	03, 24
l	ISO 8601 year number (calculated so that the year begins on the first day of the first week that contains a Thursday).	2005, 2006
w	Simple week number, where Jan 1st is always day 1, week 1.	1, 45
a	Day of the week in digits, where Monday is day 1, as in ISO 8601.	1, 6
aa	Day of the week in digits, where Sunday is day 1.	2, 7
aaa	Day of the week in digits, where Saturday is day 1.	3, 1
D	Day of the week in digits with no leading zero, where day 1 is the day on which "date zero" falls. If a "date zero" has been specified for an individual view on the Dates/Scales tab of the Date Zone Properties dialog, this is used; if not, the project-wide "date zero" that has been specified on the Properties tab of the Backstage view is used.	6
DD	Day of the week in digits with a leading zero, where day 1 is the day on which "date zero" falls. If a "date zero" has been specified for an individual view on the Dates/Scales tab of the Date Zone Properties dialog, this is used; if not, the project-wide "date zero" that has been specified on the Properties tab of the Backstage view is used.	06
A	Day of the year in digits with no leading zero for single and double-digit days.	9, 57, 306
AA	Day of the year in digits with leading zeroes for single and double-digit days.	009, 057, 306
E	Number of elapsed days between "date zero" and the date or time that the field represents, with no leading zeroes. If a "date zero" has been specified for an individual view on the Dates/Scales tab of the Date Zone Properties dialog, this is used; if not, the project-wide "date zero" that has been specified on the Properties tab of the Backstage view is used.	7, 24, 112
EE	Number of elapsed days between "date zero" and the date or time that the field represents, with a leading zero for single-digit days. If a "date zero" has been specified for an individual view on the Dates/Scales tab of the Date Zone Properties dialog, this is used; if not, the project-wide "date zero" that has been specified on the Properties tab of the Backstage view is used.	07, 24, 112
EEE	Number of elapsed days between "date zero" and the date or time that the field represents, with leading zeroes for single and double-digit days. If a "date zero" has been specified for an individual view on the Dates/Scales tab of the Date Zone Properties dialog, this is used; if not, the project-wide "date zero" that has been specified on the Properties tab of the Backstage view is used.	007, 024, 112
F	Number of elapsed weeks between "date zero" and the date or time that the field represents, with no leading zeroes. If a "date zero" has been specified for an individual view on the Dates/Scales tab of the Date Zone Properties dialog, this is used; if not, the project-wide "date zero" that has been specified on the Properties tab of the Backstage view is used.	9, 22, 100
FF	Number of elapsed weeks between "date zero" and the date or time that the field represents, with a leading zero for single-digit weeks. If a "date zero" has been specified for an individual view on the Dates/Scales tab of the Date Zone Properties dialog, this is used; if not, the project-wide "date zero" that has been specified on the Properties tab of the Backstage view is used.	09, 22, 100
FFF	Number of elapsed weeks between "date zero" and the date or time that the field represents, with leading zeroes for single and double-digit weeks. If a "date zero" has been specified for an individual view on the Dates/Scales tab of the Date Zone Properties dialog, this is used; if not, the project-wide "date zero" that has been specified on the Properties tab of the Backstage view is used.	009, 022, 100
J	Number of elapsed months between "date zero" and the date or time that the field represents, with no leading zeroes. If a "date zero" has been specified for an individual view on the Dates/Scales tab of the Date Zone Properties dialog, this is used; if not, the project-wide "date zero" that has been specified on the Properties tab of the Backstage view is used.	4, 10, 103
JJ	Number of elapsed months between "date zero" and the date or time that the field represents, with a leading zero for single-digit months. If a "date zero" has been specified for an individual view on the Dates/Scales tab of the Date Zone Properties dialog, this is used; if not, the project-wide "date zero" that has been specified on the Properties tab of the Backstage view is used.	04, 10, 103
JJJ	Number of elapsed months between the "date zero" and the date or time that the field represents, with leading zeroes for single and double-digit months. If a "date zero" has been specified for an individual view on the Dates/Scales tab of the Date Zone Properties dialog, this is used; if not, the project-wide "date zero" that has been specified on the Properties tab of the Backstage view is used.	004, 010, 103
Q	Number of elapsed quarters between "date zero" and the date or time that the field represents, with no leading zeroes. If a "date zero" has been specified for an individual view on the Dates/Scales tab of the Date Zone Properties dialog, this is used; if not, the project-wide "date zero" that has been specified on the Properties tab of the Backstage view is used.	3, 10, 117
QQ	Number of elapsed quarters between "date zero" and the date or time that the field represents, with a leading zero for single-digit quarters. If a "date zero" has been specified for an individual view on the Dates/Scales tab of the Date Zone Properties dialog, this is used; if not, the project-wide "date zero" that has been specified on the Properties tab of the Backstage view is used.	03, 10, 117
QQQ	Number of elapsed quarters between "date zero" and the date or time that the field represents, with leading zeroes for single and double-digit quarters. If a "date zero" has been specified for an individual view on the Dates/Scales tab of the Date Zone Properties dialog, this is used; if not, the project-wide "date zero" that has been specified on the Properties tab of the Backstage view is used.	003,010, 117

Note that with the E, F, J and Q date formatting fields, adding another character to the field adds another leading zero. For example, EEEE adds a leading zero for three-digit days and FFFFF adds leading zeroes for three and four digit days.

You can include other characters, for example letters and punctuation marks, in your custom date format. However, if you want to add any words that contain characters that are used as custom date format fields - characters that appear in the table above - you must enclose the words with single quotation marks. If you want to include a single quotation mark in your custom date format, replace it with a double quotation mark.

The following table gives some examples of custom date formats:

Custom date format	Example of result
'day is' dddd	day is Friday
dd MM "yy	08 04 '06
ddd, MMM dd yy hh:mm:ss tt	Mon, Dec 19 05 11:00:51 AM
'Days since date zero:' E	Days since date zero: 47
F 'weeks and' D 'days since date zero'	3 weeks and 2 days since date zero

1. Select the type of information you want to format in the Category field.
2. Specify the way in which information of that type are displayed in the remaining fields, as described in the sections below.

1. Select the number of decimal places to display in the Decimal places field.
2. Select the Use 1000 separator check box if you want to use a punctuation mark to separate thousands (for example 5,000), or clear the check box to display numbers without a thousand separator (for example 5000).
3. Specify whether you want to display negative numbers in parentheses (for example (500.23)) or preceded by a minus symbol (for example -500.23) in the Negative numbers field.

1. Select the number of decimal places to display in the Decimal places field.
2. Select the currency unit in which to display amounts in the Currency unit field.
3. Specify whether you want to display negative numbers in parentheses (for example (500.23)) or preceded by a minus symbol (for example -500.23) in the Negative numbers field.

Select the number of decimal places to display in the Decimal places field.

1. Select the number of decimal places to display in the Decimal places field.
2. Select the time unit in which you want to display durations and effort in the Time units field.
3. Select a calendar in the Calendar field to display durations and effort using the time unit override specific to that calendar.
4. Select the format in which to display durations and effort in the Duration format field.
5. Select the Do not show time unit check box to display durations and effort without any time units, or clear the check box to display these amounts with the appropriate time units.

1. Select the format in which to display dates and times in the Date formats field.
   
   Most of the available date formats display the actual date or time that the field in the cell represents. However, two of the formats - '02-02' and 'Week 2 - Day 2' - do not display the actual date or time; they display the number of weeks and days that have elapsed between the current view's 'date zero' and the date or time that the field represents. The 'date zero' - which is also used to calculate the number of the day of the week in digits - is specified in the Date Zone Properties dialog for the current view. For example, if three weeks and four days have elapsed between the 'date zero' and the date or time that a field represents, these two formats would display '03-04' and Week 3 - Day 4'.
2. If none of the existing formats suits your requirements, select Custom in the Date formats field and enter your own custom format in the field below.