5 new updates to improve the way you work with numbers in documents

With the new Prefix/Suffix, Format and Conditions options, we’re streamlining the way Writer handles Table Formulas across your documents.

While spreadsheets might be your go-to tool to crunch numbers and use formulas, documents you update on a regular basis will have tables that might need some lightweight number crunching as well.

We’re kickstarting this year with updates to the different formula options in Writer. Here’s everything that’s new.

1. Prefix or suffix clarity to results

You’ve formulated and sent a sales invoice to your overseas client stating the previous month’s bill of 6000—but is it 6000 Dollars, Rupees or Euros? Or say you’ve chronologically formulated the total distance you travelled in the previous week and have sent it to your company’s Payroll team to collect reimbursements. However, will your payroll team read it as 100 kms or miles?

These are times you’d want to include a symbol with your result so that your clients aren’t left confused. Table formulas in Writer now come with prefix and suffix options, so you can add symbols to formulas and arrive at accurate totals.

2. Format results with decimal places

Preparing an invoice or any consolidated tabular document might require you to bring data in from other sources, with much of this data having its own custom formats.

Unfortunately, capturing data from multiple sources can be confusing as they’ll all feature different pre-written formats—from numbers with different decimal places to no decimals at all.

Table formulas in Writer now let you format results, from rounding-off to formatting decimal places. So regardless of the data format, you can use table formulas to have custom formats in the results.

3. Work with more locale-specific number formats

While “Football” is a popular sport in both the US and the UK, we know that they mean two different things in each place. Similarly, Writer now understands how different regions use different numerical and currency formats—so it knows that a thousands separator in the United States is a comma (,) where as it’s denoted using a period (.) in Germany.

All you have to do is set the document language to a region-specific one. Writer adapts to your local number format automatically.

4. Add conditions to formulas

With the addition of the IF function, you no longer have to filter and calculate numbers manually. Feed your criteria into the formula dialogue box and let Writer do the math for you. Say your sales team wanted to create a document with new discount strategies for your product. They can now do this easily by executing a custom IF condition.

5. Apply formulas to merge fields

Table formulas in Writer now let you add formulas to merge fields. Say you want to create an invoice for your client using templates. You can merge the billing details from other data-sources into your invoice template, and then add table formulas to your merged fields to calculate the tax imposed, deductions and final billing amount. Get your results in just a few clicks and keep clients satisfied with quick invoice delivery.

That’s all for now. We’d love to know how these new updates help you streamline everyday tasks. Leave us a comment or write to us at support@zohowriter.com.

Happy writing!

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