The format you posted will return 2:1 for 12 and 8, but that is not their
correct ratio. Adding the extra decimal places in the format solves that
problem; but I still have a question about the ':1' result.

Okay, now, perhaps I misread the OP's request (or more than likely, read too
much into it); but in my experience when presenting the x:y ratio (odds?) of
two numbers, you do that with whole numbers for the x and y. So, my example
of 12 and 8 would be shown in a ratio of 3:2 and "pronounced" three-to-two;
whereas your result would be 1.5:1 (one-and-one-half to one). So the
question is whether the OP wants the ratio to always be against ':1' or not.
Unfortunately, she did not give an example by which we could decide.

Rick


"JE McGimpsey" wrote in message
...
What do you mean by work correctly"? The key thing is the

\:\1

You could prefix it with any other number format, e.g.:

0.0\:\1

or

0 #/#\:\1

or even

##0.0E+0\:\1

In article ,
"Rick Rothstein \(MVP - VB\)"
wrote:

That doesn't seem to work correctly... try it with 12 and 8 as the two
numbers.

Rick

"JE McGimpsey" wrote in message
...
one way:

Format/Cells/Number/Custom 0\:\1