Changing the Position of the Dollar Sign

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 3, 2024)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021


Steven often receives documents from people who incorrectly place the dollar sign after the amount instead of before (10$ instead of $10). He wonders if there is an easy way to find all instances where the dollar sign is after the amount and move it to before the amount.

This can actually be done quite quickly using the Find and Replace capabilities of Word. Here are the steps to follow:

  1. Press Ctrl+H. Word displays the Replace tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.
  2. Click the More button, if it is visible. (See Figure 1.)
  3. Figure 1. The Replace tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.

  4. Select the Use Wildcards check box.
  5. In the Find What box, enter this: ([0-9]{1,})$
  6. In the Replace With box, enter this: $\1
  7. Click Replace All.

The pattern entered in step 4 tells Word that you want to replace any number of digits followed by a dollar sign with (in step 5) a dollar sign followed by whatever was matched by the first part of the pattern in step 4. (The \1 indicates you want the first part of whatever was matched by the pattern, as denoted by parentheses.)

The pattern in step 4 won't work if there could be other characters mixed in with the numbers. For instance, if you use these steps and the original is something like 1,234.56$ then this find and replace sequence would end up with 1,234.$56, which is not what you want. If your document might contain these types of amounts, then you'll want to use the following pattern in step 4:

([0-9.,]@)$

The Replace With box (step 5) can remain as shown above. This new pattern allows for any contiguous series of digits (0-9), commas, and periods followed by a dollar sign. If you think that some of the amounts might have spaces before the dollar sign, then you could run a second find-and-replace operation and place space in the pattern just before the dollar sign. (Don't place the space within the brackets; you may not appreciate the results you get.)

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1504) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Indenting a Paragraph

Normally your text extends from the left margin all the way to the right. If you need to indent a paragraph of your text, ...

Discover More

Deleting All Graphics

Graphics can really add pizzazz to a worksheet, but they can also present some drawbacks. If you want to get rid of all ...

Discover More

Counting Words

Do you need to know how many words are in a range of cells? Excel provides no intrinsic way to count the words, but you ...

Discover More

Do More in Less Time! Are you ready to harness the full power of Word 2013 to create professional documents? In this comprehensive guide you'll learn the skills and techniques for efficiently building the documents you need for your professional and your personal life. Check out Word 2013 In Depth today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Applying a Character Style to Bracketed Text

Word has a powerful Find and Replace capability. It is even more powerful if you turn on its wildcard capability. Here's ...

Discover More

Pay Attention to Case when Searching for ASCII Codes

Word allows you to search for specific ASCII codes in a document. If you use codes to search for alphabetic characters, ...

Discover More

Counting a Particular Word

Need to know how many times a particular word appears in a document or a portion of a document? Here's a handy trick that ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is five more than 3?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.