formatting percentages

Is there a way to format a number of the form 0.### so that it appears as ##.# without the percent sign, without physically changing the value in the cell, (by multiplying by 100 for example).

When we publish tables, we put all of the units at the top of the table column. For example, assume the table shows production and revenue of four products. It has weight shown in thousands of pounds, revenue (shown as thousands of dollars and the percent of total revenue shown as a percent. In general we use custom number formats, but for the percentage we physically multiply by 100. I very much dislike changing the value of the number in order to format it.

Again we always note the units--percent--in the column header.

Thanks Bryan;
Unfornately that didn't seem to work.

Our current value in cell = 0.258
Our desired formatted value = 25.8
Default Excel Percent Format = 25.8%
Result from suggested custom format = .3 %

Our goal is to have the number show up as if it were a percent without the percent sign. We always indicate in the column header that the numbers are percentages

Thanks
Marcus Hartley

I have never seen a number format code that moves the decimal place two to the right. The only number format codes that move the decimal are the % symbol (which you already know how that works) and the comma (and the comma moves the decimal in the wrong direction the wrong number of places.

You might search Excel help for number format codes to see if you find something. From my own searches for something to do a "ppm" or "ppt" number format (move the decimal 6 or 3 places to the right), I don't expect you'll find one. When Excel doesn't provide a format code for the effect you want, then you are usually better off using functions to build a table of displayed values, while leaving the actual numbers in another table for use in calculations.

Thanks to both of you.

I did not in another post today that by setting the tool-options-Fixed Decimal to -2 a number entered as 5 becomes 500. But with that switch on a number entered as 0.256 remains 0.256.

Of course that solution still leaves me with the fact that I've changed the physical value of the cell.

The ppt and ppm issue, as well as the pph (percent) seems like it is a prevalent enough issue that perhaps Microsoft could write a format for it. Or perhaps the code for an existing format (eg. the percent format) could be adapted.

Is there any known avenue to ask Microsoft to add a feature, or is there any way to adapt the code of an existing format. Surely, when I create a custom format the code for that is saved somewhere.

Back when this forum was linked to the microsoft.excel newsgroups, you would occasionally see a post where someone was making a suggestion to microsoft. I once followed the links to somewhere on microsoft's office website where you could make a suggestion. As I recall, the basic idea is, you make a suggestion, MS posts it somewhere where people can "vote" for it. MS will try to implement the features that get the most votes.

In the time that I've been visiting this forum, there's been me, and you that I recall asking for this feature. There are probably a few I don't remember. Maybe I'm just pessimistic or cynical, but gut feel tells me there isn't near enough of us that would want this feature bad enough to get MS's attention.

But, don't let my pessimism stop you. If you want to pursue this, got to the office website and see if you can find where to submit suggestions. Tell them something like Fortran uses (F formatting I think) where you can specify how many significant figures to show and also where to put the decimal point. It would be a lot more flexible than what Excel offers now.