Hi all,
Few weeks back, I had a mild internet outage. Since I didn’t know what to do, I turned to you for help and asked you to share “VLOOKUP tips” while I get my connection back.
Oh boy!, the response to that has been overwhelming. More than 50 comments were posted, each with unique, fabulous uses of VLOOKUP & Other lookup formulas.
VLOOKUP is such an important formula that, I cannot imagine preparing a dashboard, report or any other data intensive workbook without using it a few times. So, to celebrate the versatility and usefulness of this beautiful formula (and other lookup formulas) we are going to call this as VLOOKUP week @ chandoo.org.
VLOOKUP.. what now?!?
Yes, VLOOKUP week. The idea is simple. Through out this week, I will share VLOOKUP tricks, tips & examples with you.
Since VLOOKUP & other lookup formulas are so dynamic, capturing their myriad uses and technique in one week is a daunting task. So, I am going to write 12-15 articles this week as against the usual 3-4.
What can you expect?
Tips, lots of them. Simple, quick & dirty, awesome and sometimes silly ideas that can one up your productivity. Wherever possible, I will also provide downloadable workbooks so that you can see the tip in action.
What do I expect from you
I am going to work my ass off this week writing as much about lookup formulas as possible.
All I ask in return is, go ahead and learn as much as possible.
If you can, please share this web page with your colleagues or friends and help them become awesome too.
That is all.. On to VLOOKUP Week then.
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.