Java EE (Java Enterprise Edition) General Discussion

Hey all,
I have a form bean with a few floats. When these floats are displayed I would like them formatted as currency (#,##0.0). Here is what I have so far using the <fmt:formatNumber/> tag but that doesn't seem to work how I want.

<td align="left" class="tableHeader">
   <fmt:formatNumber value="${spendplanEditProjectBean.actualFunding}" type="currency" pattern="#,##0" />
   <html:text property="actualFunding" />
</td>

This just displays the float as currency NEXT to the text box. How do I get it in the text box.

I am also wondering if I should change this float to a String in the form bean, and then worry about converting it to a float latter on in my Action class? Is it proper to declare all form variables as Strings?

Thanks