Ok, so you have written a shiny new macro to solve all the problems. The macro, solveWorldProblemsAndMakeSomeCoffee() sits nicely in your personalmacros.xlam file somewhere in C drive. You have also installed the macro as an add-in so that it is always available.
But wait!!!
How do you run your sWPAMSC everyday in the morning?
(ok, wake up now!!!, that is short for solveWorldProblemsAndMakeSomeCoffee())
One way is to,
- Right click on sheet name
- Select View Code
- Navigate to the VBA Project corresponding to your personalmacros.xlam file
- Yawn!
- Open the module with sWPAMSC
- Run the macro
But, shouldn’t this be faster and smarter than that?
Well, it is. You can add your macro to Quick Access Toolbar so that you can run it with just a click (or by pressing a shortcut).
Here is how you can add macros to Quick Access Toolbar (Excel 2007 Version):
- First write your macro and save the workbook as an excel add-in.

- Now, install the add-in by going to Office Button > Excel Options > Add-ins
- Now, right click on QAT and select Customize

- Select Macros from “choose commands…” option.

- Now, select the macro you want to add to QAT and then press Add button

- This will add your macro to QAT with default icon. You can change the icon using Modify button.

- That is all.
Here is how you can add macros to toolbars in Excel 2003:
- First write your macro and save the workbook as an excel add-in.
- Go to Tools > Customize
- Now, click on New button to create a new toolbar.

- Give it a name. Now your new toolbar will show up in Excel 2003 UI.
- Go to Commands tab and select Macros from left. Now drag the smiley icon from right to your new empty toolbar.

- You have added a new button to your toolbar. Now click on it.
- Excel will prompt you to assign a macro to that button. Select the macro from the list shown (it includes the macros in your add-in file).
- That is all.
Now go solveWorldProblemsAndGetSomeCoffee()
How do you customize your QAT / Toolbars ?
Customizing quick access toolbar can be a very productive thing to do. I used to have a bunch of macros added to QAT for quickly accessing them when I was working.
What about you? How do you customize QAT or toolbars? Do you add macros? Share your experience using comments.














11 Responses to “Fix Incorrect Percentages with this Paste-Special Trick”
I've just taught yesterday to a colleague of mine how to convert amounts in local currency into another by pasting special the ROE.
great thing to know !!!
Chandoo - this is such a great trick and helps save time. If you don't use this shortcut, you have to take can create a formula where =(ref cell /100), copy that all the way down, covert it to a percentage and then copy/paste values to the original column. This does it all much faster. Nice job!
I was just asking peers yesterday if anyone know if an easy way to do this, I've been editing each cell and adding a % manually vs setting the cell to Percentage for months and just finally reached my wits end. What perfect timing! Thanks, great tip!
If it's just appearance you care about, another alternative is to use this custom number format:
0"%"
By adding the percent sign in quotes, it gets treated as text and won't do what you warned about here: "You can not just format the cells to % format either, excel shows 23 as 2300% then."
Dear Jon S. You are the reason I love the internet. 3 year old comments making my life easier.
Thank you.
Here is a quicker protocol.
Enter 10000% into the extra cell, copy this cell, select the range you need to convert to percentages, and use paste special > divide. Since the Paste > All option is selected, it not only divides by 10000% (i.e. 100), it also applies the % format to the cells being pasted on.
@Martin: That is another very good use of Divide / Multiply operations.
@Tony, @Jody: Thank you 🙂
@Jon S: Good one...
@Jon... now why didnt I think of that.. Excellent
Thank You so much. it is really helped me.
Big help...Thanks
Thanks. That really saved me a lot of time!
Is Show Formulas is turned on in the Formula Ribbon, it will stay in decimal form until that is turned off. Drove me batty for an hour until I just figured it out.