How to use percentage formatting in Excel

Abstract

In this lesson we’ll look at the Percentage format.

The Percentage format is made to display fractional values as percentages.

For instance, the value .05, formatted as a percent, will display as 5%.

Let’s take a look.

In column B of our table we have a set of numbers in General format.

Let’s first copy the numbers to the rest of our table.

Now let’s apply the Percentage format.

As we can see, Excel displays the numbers in standard percentage format.

Let’s set decimal places to 1.

We can also use the buttons on the ribbon to adjust decimal places.

If we instead enter the correct decimal values, then apply percentage, we get the expected result.

you’ve got the option to temporarily switch the format back to General to check actual values.

you’ve got the option to also bang out fractions directly using the formula notation.