Percentages Question

Column A is formatted as a percentage, with 4 decimal places.
When I enter 5 or .05, I get the same result (5.0000%).
This is obviously not correct.

If the rule is to multiply the number entered by 100, then 5 should be
500.0000% and .05 should be 5.0000%.

So what's wrong here, and how do I make sure that users (and me), don't
enter the wrong values?

Thanks,
Bernie

Excel likes to help--but you can tell it not to.

Tools|options|edit tab|
uncheck "enable automatic percent entry"



bw wrote:
>
> Column A is formatted as a percentage, with 4 decimal places.
> When I enter 5 or .05, I get the same result (5.0000%).
> This is obviously not correct.
>
> If the rule is to multiply the number entered by 100, then 5 should be
> 500.0000% and .05 should be 5.0000%.
>
> So what's wrong here, and how do I make sure that users (and me), don't
> enter the wrong values?
>
> Thanks,
> Bernie

--

Dave Peterson

bw wrote:
> Column A is formatted as a percentage, with 4
> decimal places. When I enter 5 or .05, I get
> the same result (5.0000%). This is obviously
> not correct.

That depends on your point of view.

> how do I make sure that users (and me), don't
> enter the wrong values?

Tell them to enter the "%" symbol explicitly.
If they do that, they will realize that if they
intended to enter 500%, they will enter "500%",
not "5%".

Thank you both. Both answers were very helpful, and I'm sure to others
reading this thread...

Thanks again,
Bernie


"bw" <iamnu@cableone.net> wrote in message
news:11lfpajegsaeib9@corp.supernews.com...
> Column A is formatted as a percentage, with 4 decimal places.
> When I enter 5 or .05, I get the same result (5.0000%).
> This is obviously not correct.
>
> If the rule is to multiply the number entered by 100, then 5 should be
> 500.0000% and .05 should be 5.0000%.
>
> So what's wrong here, and how do I make sure that users (and me), don't
> enter the wrong values?
>
> Thanks,
> Bernie
>
>