Change Excel default number of decimal places

**MCCCLXXXV** · 11-04-2008, 10:55 AM

Is there a way to change the number of decimal places Excel defaults to when calculating a formula?

Often when I type a formula into a cell that will result in a number with a lot of decimal places, Excel automatically changes the cell to show 15 decimal places, which is useless and takes me more time to fix. Anyone else know what I mean?

**Ron Coderre** · 11-04-2008, 11:08 AM

Here are a couple thoughts....

1) You could change the definition of the "Normal" style on
a sheet and save that sheet as your sheet template
(by saving it in the XLSTART folder as SHEET.xlt)
Note: you'd also need to alter your default workbook template
the same way (saving it as BOOK.XLT, though)
From the Excel Main Menu:
<format><style>
Style Name: Normal
Click [Modify]
Change: the number format

OR...Perhaps a simple keyboard shortcut...
• Select the cell(s)
• Hold down CTRL and SHIFT and press ! (<-exclamation mark)
That will set those cells to comma separated values with 2 decimal places.
Example: 1,234.56

Other keyboard shortcuts:

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Does any of that help?

**MCCCLXXXV** · 11-04-2008, 11:16 AM

hmmm. i dont understand the first option - i dont have a format menu (i have2007) and no experience changing templates. the second is OK, but its still more work than none. i guess im just mostly irritated that excel would think that I need to see 15 decimal places. i thought excel was smarter than that!

**Ron Coderre** · 11-04-2008, 01:28 PM

Excel doesn't know if you're calculating flow rates, percents, currency, headcount, radians, or whatever. The General format displays the raw value of the cell. Perhaps pre-formatting the entire column/row would save some time.