# How do I format an answer to make numbers line up directly underneath one another? I tried to to answer a synthetic division problem, but could not format it correctly. Using spaces does not work. TIA

You can use the hashtag color (white)(insert your math) hashtag as a space holder that should do a decent job of lining things up.

#### Explanation:

The basic idea presented is that you can use different coloured text to highlight different things. But there is also a white colour option - and I'm thinking that might be a way to go to get things to line up - have space holders and the like in white. I'm not saying it'll be perfect (in the way, say, tabs would be) but it might be worth playing with.

As an example, we can take two expressions, say $2 {x}^{3} + 4 {x}^{2} - 5 x + 6$ and add to that $3 {x}^{3} - 6 x + 4$ and that could look like:

Without the hashtags:

2x^3+4x^2-5x+6
3x^3color(white)(+10x^2)-6x+4

With:

$2 {x}^{3} + 4 {x}^{2} - 5 x + 6$
$3 {x}^{3} \textcolor{w h i t e}{+ 10 {x}^{2}} - 6 x + 4$

(It turns out I can add big spaces between the different terms using operators, like using a repeating plus sign, and can add little spaces by using bigger and bigger coefficients for the ${x}^{2}$).

For something like 3542-201, it'd look like:

Without hashtags

color(white)(+)3542
color(white)(0)-201

With:

$\textcolor{w h i t e}{+} 3542$
$\textcolor{w h i t e}{0} - 201$

Oct 18, 2016

Learn from how others have done it.

#### Explanation:

If you see formats which you like, click on 'edit' to see how they have been done.

Clicking 'cancel' does not change anything.

I have picked up a lot of hints this way.

The ">" character acts as a tab and can help with tables and such

#### Explanation:

This is a repeat of what I wrote in a question linking into this one...

@Steven V. introduced me to the world of tabs, the ">" character. So for example:

This has no tabs

">"This will have one tab

This now has one tab

And this has two tabs

And so on

This helps clean up tables. For example, see this question (hit edit to see the use of tabs):