Should the * symbol be removed and should we teach users how to do repetitive addition? :-)

--
Kind regards,

Niek Otten
Microsoft MVP - Excel


"MartinW" wrote in message ...
|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!
|
|
|
|
|