Mail merge showing percentage with too many characters

**Meltom** · 11-26-2013, 07:17 PM

In my excel spreadsheet the data shows a percentage like:

OOR Idle
3.33% 2.94%
4.29% 2.07%
0.00% 2.26%
0.00% 2.26%
24.50% 0.20%
22.40% 4.89%

It's not my spreadsheet, but something that I have to work with. I don't see any formulas included but when I go to mail merge I get numbers like

Idle = 2.9399999999999999E-2

OOR = 3.3300000000000003E-2

Any idea how I can limit the characters. I'm sure it's easier than I'm making it out, with the things I have tired I have changed the numbers to 0.03, and 0.00%. I need them to reflect the same way they show in the spreadsheet.

**TMS** · 11-26-2013, 07:24 PM

I suspect what you actually have in the columns is the result of a formula and floating point arithmetic. What you see is the formatted version of the value in those cells. Best bet would be to modify the formulae in the cells and round the values to two decimal places.

Regards, TMS

**Richard Buttrey** · 11-26-2013, 07:29 PM

Hi

I suspect the numbers are formatted in Excel to only show 2 decimal places, but underneath the number is, for example, 3.3300000000000003E-2

I'd be inclined to round all the numbers. So in say C1 enter =ROUND(A1,2) and copy this to D1 and then copy C1:D1 down as far as necessary.
Now select columns C & D, Copy and use Paste Special Values to paste the values back to A1.

**Meltom** · 11-26-2013, 07:57 PM

Thanks for the feedback, so far no luck, but you're both probably right. I'm going to keep trying things. Starting with seeing where the original data comes from.

**TMS** · 11-26-2013, 08:03 PM

If the data can be anonymised, maybe post a sample workbook and we can help.

Regards, TMS

**Meltom** · 11-26-2013, 08:11 PM

Here is a sample

**Meltom** · 11-26-2013, 08:54 PM

So pretty much I'm onto doing this in my merge.

{=100*{MERGEFIELD OOR} \# "0.00%"}

using ctrl F9 to make these things "{"

**TMS** · 11-26-2013, 09:04 PM

Another option would be to have a helper sheet with rounding formulae and use the helper sheet as the source for the mail merge.

Mail merge showing percentage with too many characters

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