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


"Mike H" wrote in message
...
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:
ToolsOptions, 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

================================================== ===========

"Mike H" wrote in message
...
| 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!