Expressing amounts as a percentage is a very appropriate practice when you need to present a report on results, progress, or others. By nature, understanding very high figures is complicated for the human brain, on the other hand, when simplifying figures indicating a percentage. Its understanding and handling is much faster for people.
So, frequently when handling Excel spreadsheets, you will need to capture results in this format and if you still don’t know how to obtain them, today we will explain everything you need to achieve it in the most direct way.
Index( )
- What formula is used to get percentages in Excel?
- What are the steps to get percentages in Excel from your cell phone?
- How can you calculate the percentage of multiple cells simultaneously?
- What should you do to convert decimal numbers to percentages in Excel?
What formula is used to get percentages in Excel?
By definition, a percentage expresses the relationship of one quantity with respect to another , generally, they are expressed with a number followed by the symbol “%”. Although this would be equal to that number divided by 100. Understanding then that the percentage representation can be easily converted to a decimal expression and vice versa, we can apply it to translate different results.
Like for example, after calculating the annual growth rate or the sales ratio of one month compared to another, in reality the situations are endless. But they are based on the same principle. Within Microsoft Excel, obtaining a result in percentage is very simple, you just have to make sure you have the calculations ready in decimal format. To then press the percentage format button that basically takes care of multiplying the indicated value by 100 .
It is important that you remember that the fundamental formula of a percentage can be expressed as: Specific Value / Total Quantity , this means that, for example, you wanted to know what percentage represents the sales of a day. With respect to the accumulated sales of the month, simply divide the total of the day with the accumulated of the month and you will obtain a result in decimals, which you can convert to a percentage.
What are the steps to get percentages in Excel from your cell phone?
As you will see, this software from the Microsoft suite makes expressing percentages very easy, especially if you use the desktop version. Although it is true that currently most of us prefer to perform tasks or obligations from our mobile devices.
Whether you have a cell phone or tablet, Android or iOS, the first step to take advantage of the operation of this calculation program is to go to the official page to download excel . After you have it installed on your computer, you can start the tour through the different options of the app.
You’ll find that it has most of the familiar buttons, located on the same tabs, including the format cell button.
To convert a number to a percentage from Excel mobile, all you have to do is select the cell, click on the format button (whose symbol is ABC123), there you choose the “Percentage” option.
How can you calculate the percentage of multiple cells simultaneously?
We have studied the most basic percentage expression options, but there may be hundreds of cases that will involve a little more logic, translated into functions, for Excel to give us the desired result. For example, you may need to add or subtract multiple cumulative percentages or calculate the percentage of multiple cells simultaneously. You have the option to condition a set of cells , so that before entering information they already know that it will be interpreted as percentage figures. For it:
- From the “Number” group, in the home tab, you can access more format options, to customize this feature to your convenience.
- This will bring up a dialog box with all the “Format Cells” options.
- You go to “Percentage”, here you can edit the number of decimals you want to display.
- Instead, if you go to the “Custom” category, you can find default options to make negative percentages red, under the type “0.00%;[Red]-0.00%”.
- When you condition the format of one or more cells, any operation you perform on it will result in a percentage expression.
What should you do to convert decimal numbers to percentages in Excel?
Before representing data in any specific format, make sure to filter the results of interest and eliminate duplicate information , in this way you ensure that you work with true values and avoid errors in the formulas. The second most important thing, when calculating percentages, is to initially calculate all the divisive relationships of the data. In case you only have the original values without calculating , Excel can directly give the results in percentage format.
- Initially, you must condition the percentage format on the cells.
- To then enter a simple division formula, from the “Specific Value” cell, between the “Total Quantity” cell, you can anchor the latter by pressing F4.
- To repeat the calculation in the rest of the cells of the column, you can double click on the point in the lower right corner of the cell, you will immediately see the necessary percentages.
It is common to believe that if you directly enter a value in a cell and apply the percentage button, the “%” symbol will simply be added, but this is not the case.
The function of the percentage format is to multiply a decimal value by 100 to get a true percentage figure, so make sure you enter the data in decimal format.
