How do I stop fractions from being reduced?

[frustratedbyautocorrect]

I formatted cells in a column as fractions up to two numbers(21/20), and when
I put in fractions that can be reduced, excel does it automatically. I don't
want this to happen because I'm going to turn it into a graph and tables and
it is easier to see rates of change when the fractions aren't reduced. How do
I stop this?

 

[Bernard Liengme]

Format the cells with # ??/20
best wishes
--
Bernard V Liengme
www.stfx.ca/people/bliengme
remove caps from email

"frustratedbyautocorrect"

 

[Bernard Liengme]

Opps! I misread that as 2/20 not 21/20
Custom format ??/20
--
Bernard V Liengme
www.stfx.ca/people/bliengme
remove caps from email

"frustratedbyautocorrect"

 

[Ron Rosenfeld]

I formatted cells in a column as fractions up to two numbers(21/20), and when
I put in fractions that can be reduced, excel does it automatically. I don't
want this to happen because I'm going to turn it into a graph and tables and
it is easier to see rates of change when the fractions aren't reduced. How do
I stop this?

You may be overlooking the fact that the numbers stored in the cells are not
changed by changing the format. In other words, unless you store a value as
TEXT (which would probably make it useless for your purposes), the value
1 49/98

is going to be stored as (the binary equivalent of) 1.5.

The fractional formatting only changes how the value is displayed in the cell.

So far as the graph or table is concerned, you will probably need to format the
axis or table cells separately.

You could format them as showing a chosen denominator -- e.g.:

# ?/16

would display the value in 16ths.


--ron