phone number formatting

[fubbleskag]

some hump at head office just implemented a company-wide policy that phone numbers in our email signatures have to be universal, which is fine. but they've chosen the format using decimals to seperate the numbers.

this strikes me as slightly retarded.

what's your preferrred phone # format?

[Mr. Blue Sky]

(123) 123-4567

or

123-123-4567

[SiXSwordS]

.. they've chosen the format using decimals to seperate the numbers.


Do you mean: 800155521234 would be (800)555-1234?

[QuickSilver]

I go with decimals.

800.555.1212

I just like the clean look. What's retarded about it? :dubious:

[wasson]

I think they mean 800.555.1234

That's my preferred way of doing it anyway.

[fubbleskag]

you're both heathens!

[Draelin]

I'm with Mr. Blue Sky. Though I have no aesthetic objection to the decimal method, I'm all about the dashes. In fact, I'm too lazy for the parentheses at this point, espeically since I live in a ten-digit-dialing area, anyhow.

[elmwood]

You mean 212.555.1212 ?

Using decimals in phone numbers is something I started to see about 15 years ago. Early adopters seemed to be mostly design-related companies; I first saw numbers formatted with decimals on the letterhead of architecture and graphic design firms. From there, it spread.

Why use them as a standard? I can't think of a good reason, except that a parenthesis for the area code seems to imply that dialing it is optional, when in fact it's required in areas with ten digit dialing. The use of decimal places instead of dashes? It looks clean and stylish, in some way.

[Otto]

I'd rather there just be a space: 800 555 1212.

[MaxTheVool]

The nice thing about (xxx)yyy-zzzz is that it clearly and immediately identifies the number as a phone number. Sometimes there's no ambiguity, but sometimes there might be, and this phone-number-specific formatting removes that possibility.

[Anaamika]

I don't really see decimals as retarded, but I prefer dashes. The main reasons for me are


Dashes look neater to me.
When printing, decimals often get lost in the text.
The little dash sign on the number keypad is somehow more convenient to me than the decimal.

[ultrafilter]

The nice thing about (xxx)yyy-zzzz is that it clearly and immediately identifies the number as a phone number.

Of course, so does putting phone: or some other suitable identifier in front of it. I prefer the parentheses/dashes, but wouldn't object to decimals.

[brownie55]

It's a global thing. They have been doing it that way in Europe (at least Belguim, where my people are from) for a long time. I think it looks cleaner too.

[Giles]

It's a global thing. They have been doing it that way in Europe (at least Belguim, where my people are from) for a long time. I think it looks cleaner too.
If it's a global thing, then you need to use:

+1-123-123-4567

since, globally speaking, not all telephone numbers are in zone 1.

[taxi78cab]

My company went to the decimal format as our standard about a year ago. It's not my preferred format, but I don't mind it that much, especially since I don't usually have to type it. My signature just automatically appears at the end of every email so it gets included without me having to think about it.

[Hal Briston]

Ugh...I work for a global company, and they occasionally try and force that one down our throats as well. I think it's a geek chic thing. As in:

"Oooo! 123.456.7890 makes it kinda look like an IP address! K-rad!"

Eff that...If they want me to start using decimals on it, they'll have to pry the dash key off my keyboard.


...and even then, I'll just use the ASCII code...

[Robot Arm]

"Oooo! 123.456.7890 makes it kinda look like an IP address! K-rad!"Which is exactly the reason NOT to use decimals for phone numbers. (800)555-1212 is immediately recognized, and unmistakably a U.S. (or Canada) phone number. You don't even need to preface it with "Phone:" if you don't want to. That recognition is powerful and should be taken advantage of. It doesn't need to look cool.

[GorillaMan]

It's a global thing. They have been doing it that way in Europe (at least Belguim, where my people are from) for a long time. I think it looks cleaner too.
It's not universal. The UK is closer to the US format, although always spaces and never hyphens. I've never ever seen a decimal format outside of mainland Europe.

An international listing would look like +44 (0)161 123 4567 or (44) 0161 123 4567. A national one would be 01473 123456, or 020 8123 4567. The spaces are important, because the geographic designation is often clear (the last example is London, which would be recognised by most people).

[UncleBeer]

some hump at head office just implemented a company-wide policy that phone numbers in our email signatures have to be universal, which is fine. but they've chosen the format using decimals to seperate the numbers.

this strikes me as slightly retarded.

what's your preferrred phone # format?

How many contact management software programs even support this? Unless there's an option I can't find, MS Outlook converts anything I type to (xxx) yyy-zzzz.

[Cunctator]

We tend to use spaces here too. Australian numbers are eight digits, with two digit area codes, so domestically you'd see:

(02) 9876 5432

Internationally you'd see:

61 2 9876 5432

[Thylacinewas taken]

I like the decimals from the style point of view. When I worked at a print shop about half of cards had hyphens and most of the other half used periods or spaces. I like how periods look becase they seperate the numbers, but don't distract your eye from the numbers. (Of course if you're a more math-minded person you're going to think that periods mean decimal numbers and I'm some artsy flake!)

Also bullets are used once in a while, and sometimes dashes (403/555/5440) on the more daring designs. Some things I never saw seperating numbers were commas and asterisks.

[LSLGuy]

The ITU is the international body in charge of telephone numbers and formats. They have 2 relevant standards, E.123 and E.164. You can read more about them at http://www.numberingplans.com .

I seem to recall a US Federal standard that was put out a few years ago suggesting the new preferred US format is 123.456.7890. But my Googling couldn't find any evidence of it just now.

Personally, I don't like usings dots in phone numbers. With a typical proportional font, the dot character is so narrow it just looks like 10 digits run together. I'd rather we use a - or a space, something that's got enough width to clearly separate the groups.

[MissGypsy]

I first encountered the style with decimals when I became a graphic designer; it was regarded as sort of European-looking, and therefore sophisticated. I like it; it's clean, and easy to type on the numeric keypad.

But now I work in a stuffier corporate culture, so I go with dashes, because I don't have to use both hands to type it in. I'm all about effeciency. Plus, I've become a sloppy typist, so half the time I miss the shift key on one of the parenthesis, and I end up with a messed-up phone number.

[Hal Briston]

Who says the Dope doesn't influence the media? :)

This thread created: 7/11/05, 12:23 PM
This news article (http://news.yahoo.com/s/krwashbureau/20050711/ts_krwashbureau/_bc_dotdash_wa_1) appears: 7/11/05, 3:53 PM

[BobLibDem]

I prefer (123) 555-1212.

The thing I hate about decimals is that it just does not look right. If you have any respect for mathematics, you would not construct a string with more than one decimal point. It just isn't how numbers are supposed to look.

[fubbleskag]

alright, well i fought hard but in the end i was reminded that i'm just a peon who should stick to doing what he's told - quietly.

although it was enlightening to hear that they use this format in the UK - we were recently (relatively) purchased and our new parent company is (shocker!) based in the UK.

hal: nice link, i included it with my concession email to the powers that be (along with my new signature.

[CBCD]

I politely object to the use of the word retarded as a pejorative. Retardation is a developmental disabilty.

[brownie55]

I prefer (123) 555-1212.

The thing I hate about decimals is that it just does not look right. If you have any respect for mathematics, you would not construct a string with more than one decimal point. It just isn't how numbers are supposed to look.
IP addresses must give you hives.

[BobLibDem]

IP addresses must give you hives.

Not really. I hardly ever see the IP addresses so I don't worry about them.

[Sierra Indigo]

"Oooo! 123.456.7890 makes it kinda look like an IP address! K-rad!"

That's precisely the reason I hate people who use decimals to separate a telephone number. I work with IP addresses all day. If I see a number that goes 123.456.78.90 or anything similar, I have trouble comprehending it as a phone number.

We're a global company, so the numbers on peoples sigs over here are usually +61 2 3456 7890, or more commonly just the extension number.

[Podkayne]

I started using the decimal format on my Palm because the decimals were easy to enter using Graffitti and take up less space than dashes, which was actually important in the phonebook application I used to keep the number from splitting over two lines when I had the text size turned to large to make it easier to read in low light.

Since then, I kept doing it, partly out of habit, and partly because it looks nice and clean, I think.

[Kyla]

In Israel, people usually write the seven numbers without any spacing, just 5551212. If you have to call another area code, they use a dash. Jerusalem is 02-5551212, Tel Aviv is 03-5551212, etc.

I usually use a dot if I'm typing, I find it easier to get when I'm using ten-key. If I'm writing longhand, I'll use a dash. I don't really feel strongly about it either way.