Should the * symbol be removed and should we teach users how to do repetitive addition?
--
Kind regards,
Niek Otten
Microsoft MVP - Excel
|I second Mike's comments and take it a little further.
| Personally I think that the percentage keys in Excel or in
| calculators should not exist.
|
| As Mike says, they are handy little tools for someone who understands
| percentages, however, for someone who doesn't understand them
| they are just a disaster waiting to happen.
|
| I wish I had one cent for everytime an error has been created by misuse
| of the percentage function! Get rid of it and teach people how percentages
| work, they are not a difficult concept to get a handle on.
|
| Regards
| Martin
|
|
| | > Niek,
| >
| > In Excel I would do percentage calulations as you describe but only
| > because
| > modern tools such as Excel have made me lazy. I learnt these calculations
| > in
| > the days before spreadsheets and calculators when multiplyng a number by
| > 25%
| > using pencil and paper simply made (and still makes) no sense hence my
| > qualified answer to the OP that there are several methods.
| >
| > In my humble view it is much better that someone inderstands how a
| > percentage is arrived at then have them accept that =mynumber*25% will
| > work
| > it out for you.
| >
| > Regards,
| >
| > Mike H
| >
| > "Niek Otten" wrote:
| >
| >> Hi Mike,
| >>
| >> My standard answer:
| >> =============================================================
| >> About percentages in Excel
| >>
| >> Niek Otten, July 26 2006
| >>
| >> In Excel, percentages are stored as fractions; 15% is stored as
| >> 0.15, 100% as 1. That makes it easy to calculate with; just
| >> multiply a number with a percentage and you get what you need. No need to
| >> divide/multiply by 100. In fact, if you see a
| >> calculation with percentages which has the number 100 somewhere in the
| >> formula; be very careful, it might be wrong or at least use
| >> percentages in a way they weren't meant to be used in Excel.
| >> The conversion to a fraction happens automatically if you enter the
| >> % sign: if you enter "15%" (without the quotes) the
| >> value will be 0.15 and it will be displayed as 15%. If you then enter 12
| >> in the same cell, two things can happen: It will be the
| >> number 12 or 12%. What happens in your case depends on a setting:
| >> Tools>Options, Edit tab, "Enable automatic percent entry" (only
| >> Excel2000 and newer).
| >> All built-in functions of Excel and all the functions in Analysis
| >> Toolpak use this representation of percentages: be careful
| >> when supplying parameters to these functions; never use whole numbers
| >> (like 8), always use fractions (like 0.08 or, even better,
| >> 8%).
| >>
| >> Frequently Asked Questions:
| >>
| >> Q:
| >> I have A1 and B1. How do I get C1 to show B1 as a percentage of A1?
| >> A:
| >> Formula in C1: =B1/A1, Format as %
| >>
| >> Q:
| >> I have A1 and B1. How do I show the difference as a percentage in
| >> C1?
| >> A:
| >> As a percentage of A1: =(B1-A1)/A1, Format as %
| >> As a percentage of B1: =(B1-A1)/B1, Format as %
| >>
| >>
| >> --
| >> Kind regards,
| >>
| >> Niek Otten
| >> Microsoft MVP - Excel
| >>
| >> =============================================================
| >>
| >> | >> | There are a few ways and it may become more understandable to you if
| >> you
| >> | consider this. Dividing any number by 100 gives 1% of that number so in
| >> your
| >> | case
| >> |
| >> | 196/100*25 = 25% of 196
| >> |
| >> | to make this into an excel formula put an = sign in front
| >> |
| >> | =196/100*25
| >> |
| >> | Mike
| >> |
| >> | "adstarc" wrote:
| >> |
| >> | > I am new to excel and I am trying to find out how to do percentages.
| >> One of
| >> | > my questions is find out 25% of 196 and I am just drawing a blank!
| >>
| >>
| >>
|
|
