Formatting negative percent

[Tschurin]

I understand from looking at past threads that there is a way to
conditionally format a negative percent so that it is red.

But why isn't that a choice automatically provided by Excel?

When you format a cell with a number in it, you are given a choice to format
a negative number in black or red, with or without a parenthesis around the
number.

Why shouldn't you have the option of formatting a negative percentage in
red, with or without parentheses. Red with parentheses is much easier to read
than the thin negative sign to the left in black. At least one should have
the option.

Geoff

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...dg=microsoft.public.excel.worksheet.functions

 

[John C]

Custom number format is easy enough to do.... Why can't I have an automatic
choice for fractions with up to 4 digits in the denominator? up to 5 digits?
Why not a date format of mm/dd/yyyy as a default choice instead of doing
customs....The custom provides good flexibility, and the lists are the more
'basic' uses... Just my 2 cents.

 

[Tschurin]

John

I'm not sure why you are raining on this idea. You say it is "easy enough to
do;" if you deal with a dozen charts a day with rows of negative percentages
then "easy enough to do" becomes a time wasting chore. Besides:
1) This suggestion is consistent with what excel already does with other
numbers
2) improves the legibility of percentages and thus makes it less likely that
someone might make a mistake reading percentage numbers
3) It's not like it would be terribly complicated.
You say that custom numbers provide "good flexibility." For negative numbers
you don't need a lot of flexibility; red is the accepted color for negative
numbers.
You say the list is for more "basic uses." How much more basic can a
negative percent be; for the sake of discussion we can assume a percentage
change has just as much a chance of being negative, as of being positive.
Some of the suggestions you say you would like may in fact be good. Push
those ideas, instead of raining on others peoples' ideas.

Geoff

 

[Fred Smith]

John's not raining on your idea. He's giving you the facts.

It's no use telling us what you want to see in Excel. We all have our pet
enhancements we'd like to see. But there's only one entity which can
implement the enhancements -- Microsoft. This is a group of users. If you
want to submit an enhancement request, send it directly to Microsoft.

Regards,
Fred.

 

[ShaneDevenshire]

Hi,

Before I delve in the question of why, lets answer the question of how:

1. Choose Format, Cells, Number tab, Custom and enter the following on the
Type line
0.00_);[Red](-0.00%)
If you want it to 2 decimal places.
2. Using Conditional Formatting you set up your basic format and then choose
Format, Conditional Formatting, choose less than from the second drop down,
enter 0 in the third box, click Format and on the Font tab set the Color to
Red.

Why - because that's how Microsoft programmed it. There are millions of
possible formats that people might want so Micrsoft decided to build some in
and leave others out. You can't please all the people all the time. You may
not remember Lotus 1-2-3 but you had to live with their built in formats -
you couldn't design any of your own, and the built in ones were, by present
day standards, very limited.

 

[John C]

I'm not raining on your idea. And, in fact, I deal with percentages all the
time, but I don't use red to denote negative percent. When I refer to a
percent it is a percentage increase, or a percentage decrease. What I am
saying is, once you add a custom format to your workbook, there it is, it is
just under a different selection. What you consider commonplace, or a
no-brainer, someone else never even uses. The fact is, if they were to try to
include a format for every possible situation that everyone that uses excel
considers fundamental, it would make excel so large as to be ridiculous. If
you don't know how to add a 'single' custom format to your workbook, and
heck, even create a button macro that will automatically apply it to the
current selection, then ask for that kind of help here and I am sure someone
will come up with a solution for you (and, in fact, if you search, you might
find just that kind of solution out here). But the simple fact is, don't
expect everyone to agree with you with what you think is a fundamental thing,
and others never even use.

 

[Tschurin]

Shane

Thanks for your help
Obviously I am not very knowledgeable about formatting or custom formatting
of cells.
I was able to just cut and paste your "code" and it seems to work fine.

I still don't necessarily agree that Excel 2007 should provide only one
prepared way to format percentage [for most other categories it provides
multiple options] but, as the saying goes, I'd rather find a solution than be
right.

Regards,
Geoff

Hi,

Before I delve in the question of why, lets answer the question of how:

1. Choose Format, Cells, Number tab, Custom and enter the following on the
Type line
0.00_);[Red](-0.00%)
If you want it to 2 decimal places.
2. Using Conditional Formatting you set up your basic format and then choose
Format, Conditional Formatting, choose less than from the second drop down,
enter 0 in the third box, click Format and on the Font tab set the Color to
Red.

Why - because that's how Microsoft programmed it. There are millions of
possible formats that people might want so Micrsoft decided to build some in
and leave others out. You can't please all the people all the time. You may
not remember Lotus 1-2-3 but you had to live with their built in formats -
you couldn't design any of your own, and the built in ones were, by present
day standards, very limited.

--
Thanks,
Shane Devenshire

I understand from looking at past threads that there is a way to
conditionally format a negative percent so that it is red.

But why isn't that a choice automatically provided by Excel?

When you format a cell with a number in it, you are given a choice to format
a negative number in black or red, with or without a parenthesis around the
number.

Why shouldn't you have the option of formatting a negative percentage in
red, with or without parentheses. Red with parentheses is much easier to read
than the thin negative sign to the left in black. At least one should have
the option.

Geoff

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...dg=microsoft.public.excel.worksheet.functions

 

[ShaneDevenshire]

Hi,

The important thing is that you can do what you need.

Regarding 2007 - I have personally documented over 1730 change in Excel
2007, and there are more; this was a monster upgrade, going from 2002 to 2003
I would have had trouble finding 20. I also submitted over 600 suggested
changes to Excel 2007 to Microsoft, and I am only one user out of 600,000,000
users. It's always a question of resources and deadlines - how many
programmers can you place against the task and when will you release the
product.

--
Thanks,
Shane Devenshire

Shane

Thanks for your help
Obviously I am not very knowledgeable about formatting or custom formatting
of cells.
I was able to just cut and paste your "code" and it seems to work fine.

I still don't necessarily agree that Excel 2007 should provide only one
prepared way to format percentage [for most other categories it provides
multiple options] but, as the saying goes, I'd rather find a solution than be
right.

Regards,
Geoff

Hi,

Before I delve in the question of why, lets answer the question of how:

1. Choose Format, Cells, Number tab, Custom and enter the following on the
Type line
0.00_);[Red](-0.00%)
If you want it to 2 decimal places.
2. Using Conditional Formatting you set up your basic format and then choose
Format, Conditional Formatting, choose less than from the second drop down,
enter 0 in the third box, click Format and on the Font tab set the Color to
Red.

Why - because that's how Microsoft programmed it. There are millions of
possible formats that people might want so Micrsoft decided to build some in
and leave others out. You can't please all the people all the time. You may
not remember Lotus 1-2-3 but you had to live with their built in formats -
you couldn't design any of your own, and the built in ones were, by present
day standards, very limited.

--
Thanks,
Shane Devenshire

I understand from looking at past threads that there is a way to
conditionally format a negative percent so that it is red.

But why isn't that a choice automatically provided by Excel?

When you format a cell with a number in it, you are given a choice to format
a negative number in black or red, with or without a parenthesis around the
number.

Why shouldn't you have the option of formatting a negative percentage in
red, with or without parentheses. Red with parentheses is much easier to read
than the thin negative sign to the left in black. At least one should have
the option.

Geoff

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...dg=microsoft.public.excel.worksheet.functions

 

[Tschurin]

Shane

If you are still there, I've noticed that what you suggested I type for
conditional formatting does produce the correct red text and parentheses for
negative percentage change. However postive percentage change shows up as a
number instead of a percentage, e.g. 0.07, instead of 7.05%. Is this easily
fixed?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me on this,
Geoff

Hi,

The important thing is that you can do what you need.

Regarding 2007 - I have personally documented over 1730 change in Excel
2007, and there are more; this was a monster upgrade, going from 2002 to 2003
I would have had trouble finding 20. I also submitted over 600 suggested
changes to Excel 2007 to Microsoft, and I am only one user out of 600,000,000
users. It's always a question of resources and deadlines - how many
programmers can you place against the task and when will you release the
product.

--
Thanks,
Shane Devenshire

Shane

Thanks for your help
Obviously I am not very knowledgeable about formatting or custom formatting
of cells.
I was able to just cut and paste your "code" and it seems to work fine.

I still don't necessarily agree that Excel 2007 should provide only one
prepared way to format percentage [for most other categories it provides
multiple options] but, as the saying goes, I'd rather find a solution than be
right.

Regards,
Geoff

Hi,

Before I delve in the question of why, lets answer the question of how:

1. Choose Format, Cells, Number tab, Custom and enter the following on the
Type line
0.00_);[Red](-0.00%)
If you want it to 2 decimal places.
2. Using Conditional Formatting you set up your basic format and then choose
Format, Conditional Formatting, choose less than from the second drop down,
enter 0 in the third box, click Format and on the Font tab set the Color to
Red.

Why - because that's how Microsoft programmed it. There are millions of
possible formats that people might want so Micrsoft decided to build some in
and leave others out. You can't please all the people all the time. You may
not remember Lotus 1-2-3 but you had to live with their built in formats -
you couldn't design any of your own, and the built in ones were, by present
day standards, very limited.

--
Thanks,
Shane Devenshire


:

I understand from looking at past threads that there is a way to
conditionally format a negative percent so that it is red.

But why isn't that a choice automatically provided by Excel?

When you format a cell with a number in it, you are given a choice to format
a negative number in black or red, with or without a parenthesis around the
number.

Why shouldn't you have the option of formatting a negative percentage in
red, with or without parentheses. Red with parentheses is much easier to read
than the thin negative sign to the left in black. At least one should have
the option.

Geoff

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...dg=microsoft.public.excel.worksheet.functions

 

[Fred Smith]

Yes. Change
0.00_);[Red](-0.00%)

to
0.00%_);[Red](-0.00%)

Regards,
Fred.

Shane

If you are still there, I've noticed that what you suggested I type for
conditional formatting does produce the correct red text and parentheses
for
negative percentage change. However postive percentage change shows up as
a
number instead of a percentage, e.g. 0.07, instead of 7.05%. Is this
easily
fixed?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me on this,
Geoff

Hi,

The important thing is that you can do what you need.

Regarding 2007 - I have personally documented over 1730 change in Excel
2007, and there are more; this was a monster upgrade, going from 2002 to
2003
I would have had trouble finding 20. I also submitted over 600 suggested
changes to Excel 2007 to Microsoft, and I am only one user out of
600,000,000
users. It's always a question of resources and deadlines - how many
programmers can you place against the task and when will you release the
product.

--
Thanks,
Shane Devenshire

Shane

Thanks for your help
Obviously I am not very knowledgeable about formatting or custom
formatting
of cells.
I was able to just cut and paste your "code" and it seems to work fine.

I still don't necessarily agree that Excel 2007 should provide only one
prepared way to format percentage [for most other categories it
provides
multiple options] but, as the saying goes, I'd rather find a solution
than be
right.

Regards,
Geoff


:

Hi,

Before I delve in the question of why, lets answer the question of
how:

1. Choose Format, Cells, Number tab, Custom and enter the following
on the
Type line
0.00_);[Red](-0.00%)
If you want it to 2 decimal places.
2. Using Conditional Formatting you set up your basic format and then
choose
Format, Conditional Formatting, choose less than from the second drop
down,
enter 0 in the third box, click Format and on the Font tab set the
Color to
Red.

Why - because that's how Microsoft programmed it. There are millions
of
possible formats that people might want so Micrsoft decided to build
some in
and leave others out. You can't please all the people all the time.
You may
not remember Lotus 1-2-3 but you had to live with their built in
formats -
you couldn't design any of your own, and the built in ones were, by
present
day standards, very limited.

--
Thanks,
Shane Devenshire


:

I understand from looking at past threads that there is a way to
conditionally format a negative percent so that it is red.

But why isn't that a choice automatically provided by Excel?

When you format a cell with a number in it, you are given a choice
to format
a negative number in black or red, with or without a parenthesis
around the
number.

Why shouldn't you have the option of formatting a negative
percentage in
red, with or without parentheses. Red with parentheses is much
easier to read
than the thin negative sign to the left in black. At least one
should have
the option.

Geoff

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to
the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click
the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button,
follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader
and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...dg=microsoft.public.excel.worksheet.functions

 

[Tschurin]

Fred

That does the trick.

Thanks

Yes. Change
0.00_);[Red](-0.00%)

to
0.00%_);[Red](-0.00%)

Regards,
Fred.

Shane

If you are still there, I've noticed that what you suggested I type for
conditional formatting does produce the correct red text and parentheses
for
negative percentage change. However postive percentage change shows up as
a
number instead of a percentage, e.g. 0.07, instead of 7.05%. Is this
easily
fixed?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me on this,
Geoff

Hi,

The important thing is that you can do what you need.

Regarding 2007 - I have personally documented over 1730 change in Excel
2007, and there are more; this was a monster upgrade, going from 2002 to
2003
I would have had trouble finding 20. I also submitted over 600 suggested
changes to Excel 2007 to Microsoft, and I am only one user out of
600,000,000
users. It's always a question of resources and deadlines - how many
programmers can you place against the task and when will you release the
product.

--
Thanks,
Shane Devenshire


:

Shane

Thanks for your help
Obviously I am not very knowledgeable about formatting or custom
formatting
of cells.
I was able to just cut and paste your "code" and it seems to work fine.

I still don't necessarily agree that Excel 2007 should provide only one
prepared way to format percentage [for most other categories it
provides
multiple options] but, as the saying goes, I'd rather find a solution
than be
right.

Regards,
Geoff


:

Hi,

Before I delve in the question of why, lets answer the question of
how:

1. Choose Format, Cells, Number tab, Custom and enter the following
on the
Type line
0.00_);[Red](-0.00%)
If you want it to 2 decimal places.
2. Using Conditional Formatting you set up your basic format and then
choose
Format, Conditional Formatting, choose less than from the second drop
down,
enter 0 in the third box, click Format and on the Font tab set the
Color to
Red.

Why - because that's how Microsoft programmed it. There are millions
of
possible formats that people might want so Micrsoft decided to build
some in
and leave others out. You can't please all the people all the time.
You may
not remember Lotus 1-2-3 but you had to live with their built in
formats -
you couldn't design any of your own, and the built in ones were, by
present
day standards, very limited.

--
Thanks,
Shane Devenshire


:

I understand from looking at past threads that there is a way to
conditionally format a negative percent so that it is red.

But why isn't that a choice automatically provided by Excel?

When you format a cell with a number in it, you are given a choice
to format
a negative number in black or red, with or without a parenthesis
around the
number.

Why shouldn't you have the option of formatting a negative
percentage in
red, with or without parentheses. Red with parentheses is much
easier to read
than the thin negative sign to the left in black. At least one
should have
the option.

Geoff

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to
the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click
the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button,
follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader
and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...dg=microsoft.public.excel.worksheet.functions

 

[Fred Smith]

Glad to help,

Fred.

Fred

That does the trick.

Thanks

Yes. Change
0.00_);[Red](-0.00%)

to
0.00%_);[Red](-0.00%)

Regards,
Fred.

Shane

If you are still there, I've noticed that what you suggested I type for
conditional formatting does produce the correct red text and
parentheses
for
negative percentage change. However postive percentage change shows up
as
a
number instead of a percentage, e.g. 0.07, instead of 7.05%. Is this
easily
fixed?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me on this,
Geoff

:

Hi,

The important thing is that you can do what you need.

Regarding 2007 - I have personally documented over 1730 change in
Excel
2007, and there are more; this was a monster upgrade, going from 2002
to
2003
I would have had trouble finding 20. I also submitted over 600
suggested
changes to Excel 2007 to Microsoft, and I am only one user out of
600,000,000
users. It's always a question of resources and deadlines - how many
programmers can you place against the task and when will you release
the
product.

--
Thanks,
Shane Devenshire


:

Shane

Thanks for your help
Obviously I am not very knowledgeable about formatting or custom
formatting
of cells.
I was able to just cut and paste your "code" and it seems to work
fine.

I still don't necessarily agree that Excel 2007 should provide only
one
prepared way to format percentage [for most other categories it
provides
multiple options] but, as the saying goes, I'd rather find a
solution
than be
right.

Regards,
Geoff


:

Hi,

Before I delve in the question of why, lets answer the question of
how:

1. Choose Format, Cells, Number tab, Custom and enter the
following
on the
Type line
0.00_);[Red](-0.00%)
If you want it to 2 decimal places.
2. Using Conditional Formatting you set up your basic format and
then
choose
Format, Conditional Formatting, choose less than from the second
drop
down,
enter 0 in the third box, click Format and on the Font tab set the
Color to
Red.

Why - because that's how Microsoft programmed it. There are
millions
of
possible formats that people might want so Micrsoft decided to
build
some in
and leave others out. You can't please all the people all the
time.
You may
not remember Lotus 1-2-3 but you had to live with their built in
formats -
you couldn't design any of your own, and the built in ones were,
by
present
day standards, very limited.

--
Thanks,
Shane Devenshire


:

I understand from looking at past threads that there is a way to
conditionally format a negative percent so that it is red.

But why isn't that a choice automatically provided by Excel?

When you format a cell with a number in it, you are given a
choice
to format
a negative number in black or red, with or without a parenthesis
around the
number.

Why shouldn't you have the option of formatting a negative
percentage in
red, with or without parentheses. Red with parentheses is much
easier to read
than the thin negative sign to the left in black. At least one
should have
the option.

Geoff

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds
to
the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion,
click
the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button,
follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based
Newsreader
and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...dg=microsoft.public.excel.worksheet.functions

 

[Peter H6]

I agree

I understand from looking at past threads that there is a way to
conditionally format a negative percent so that it is red.

But why isn't that a choice automatically provided by Excel?

When you format a cell with a number in it, you are given a choice to format
a negative number in black or red, with or without a parenthesis around the
number.

Why shouldn't you have the option of formatting a negative percentage in
red, with or without parentheses. Red with parentheses is much easier to read
than the thin negative sign to the left in black. At least one should have
the option.

Geoff

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...dg=microsoft.public.excel.worksheet.functions

. Why can't I have an automatic
choice for fractions with up to 4 digits in the denominator? up to 5 digits?
Why not a date format of mm/dd/yyyy as a default choice instead of doing
customs....The custom provides good flexibility, and the lists are the more
'basic' uses... Just my 2 cents.

On Saturday, November 08, 2008 1:38 AM ShaneDevenshir wrote:
Hi,

Before I delve in the question of why, lets answer the question of how:

1. Choose Format, Cells, Number tab, Custom and enter the following on the
Type line
0.00_);[Red](-0.00%)
If you want it to 2 decimal places.
2. Using Conditional Formatting you set up your basic format and then choose
Format, Conditional Formatting, choose less than from the second drop down,
enter 0 in the third box, click Format and on the Font tab set the Color to
Red.

Why - because that's how Microsoft programmed it. There are millions of
possible formats that people might want so Micrsoft decided to build some in
and leave others out. You can't please all the people all the time. You may
not remember Lotus 1-2-3 but you had to live with their built in formats -
you couldn't design any of your own, and the built in ones were, by present
day standards, very limited.

--
Thanks,
Shane Devenshire


"Tschurin" wrote:

On Saturday, November 08, 2008 2:12 PM Tschuri wrote:
Shane

Thanks for your help
Obviously I am not very knowledgeable about formatting or custom formatting
of cells.
I was able to just cut and paste your "code" and it seems to work fine.

I still don't necessarily agree that Excel 2007 should provide only one
prepared way to format percentage [for most other categories it provides
multiple options] but, as the saying goes, I'd rather find a solution than be
right.

Regards,
Geoff


"ShaneDevenshire" wrote:

On Friday, November 14, 2008 9:22 AM Fred Smith wrote:
Yes. Change
0.00_);[Red](-0.00%)

to
0.00%_);[Red](-0.00%)

Regards,
Fred.