Google Docs – spreadsheet application has introduced some major upgrades to their editor today.
Some of the key changes include:
- Introduction of menus to access all spreadsheet functions / features by category: Now the spreadsheet app menus look more like Excel 2003 menus. Looks like Google is trying hard to close gap between the two applications.
- Improved and less ambiguous toolbar: Now the toolbar has lesser icons on it but it is more user friendly and simple.
- Named ranges: I haven’t seen these before. Or they were hidden somewhere in the cluttered toolbar. But the named ranges feature can be really useful if you work with tabular data and use lots of formulas.
New share and auto-save buttons: The new “Share” and “save” buttons are cool and functional. They have replaced the earlier “save”, “save & close” buttons. They have also changed the “share” screens, now when you click on the share options, you would see a normal dialog box with spreadsheet sharing options etc. instead of the earlier version with screen tabs.
Give these new features a try, who knows, you might find spending 90 odd dollars on a full blown spreadsheet application like MS Excel a waste of money.
PS: the first screenshot of Docs is from Google spreadsheet help page
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.