problem with percentage in cells

  • Thread starter Thread starter jbridge337
  • Start date Start date
J

jbridge337

I created a file a few days ago using excel 2003 and had formatted
some cells for percentage. When I typed .5 the cell would display
0.5%. I emailed the file to myself to edit on another computer also
using excel 2003 and today when I type .5 the cell now shows 50%.
When I try to format cell for percentage it indicates that the typed
value will be multiplied by 100 and the result displayed with %
symbol. How do I format a cell using 2003 or 2007 so that when I
type .5 the cell show 0.5% or when 2.5 is typed the cell shows 2.5%
and not 250%?

Thank you.

Jim
 
the file may have been opened but not edited on a machine using 2007
before being emailed if that would make any difference

Jim
 
Jim,

Format the cells as:

0.0" %"

changing the number of zeros after the decimal to match your needs.

This retains the number you type in and simply appends the percent
sign. However, this could cause confusion if a viewer expects
something that looks like "50.0 %" to actually be .5 rather than 50.

Mark Lincoln
 
thanks for the quick response. Any thoughts as to why what worked a
few days ago is fuctioning differently today? Related to 2007 vs
2003.
 
With that workbook as the activeworkbook
tools=>Options=>Edit Tab
make sure "enable automatic percent entry" is checked ( on the right of the
dialog)
 
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