how to remove percentage (%) sign fuction?

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Level 1

50 points

how to remove percentage (%) sign fuction?

Hi all, I have just received a spreadsheet from a client and the figures in the table have a percent (%) sign after each figure

I cant find the function that makes these appear, so that I can disable it?

I need to get rid of the % sign so that I can just copy the figures only into my InDesign table

any ideas?

regards, Robert

Mac Pro 2.8 octo, G4 powerbook 17", Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Dec 9, 2008 8:43 AM

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Answer 1

jaxjason

Level 5

5,035 points

Dec 9, 2008 9:29 AM in response to Robert P2

If the % sign is typed in, then your dealing with a text cell, you can strip off characters off a string with the left or right command.

so if 12% is in A1, we can put

=left(a1,len(a1)-1)

This will grab the left hand characters equal in number to the length of the whole string minus 1.

Jason

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Answer 2

Robert P2 Author

Level 1

50 points

Dec 9, 2008 9:52 AM in response to jaxjason

Thanks Jaxjason, I have found the function that creates the percentage in the inspector pallet (cell format)

it seems that the original file used the percentage formatting to drive the figures, I can change the setting to just numbers but the figures change ie 2.1% changes to 00.021

I was looking for a way to still show the figure as 2.1 but remove the '%' sign, looks like there's no way to do it ;(

never mind, I'll find a workaround somehow

thanks again Robert

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Answer 3

KOENIG Yvan

Level 8

41,807 points

Dec 9, 2008 10:06 AM in response to Robert P2

Hello

2.1% IS 0.021 so the program does its job correctly.

It seems that what you want is to replace it by the original value multiplicated by 100
Insert an extraneous column and, assuming that the original values are in column A, enter the formula =a*100

Then you may copy the resulting values and use 'Paste Values' to put the new values in column A then remove the auxiliary column.

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE mardi 9 décembre 2008 19:06:29)

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Answer 4

jaxjason

Level 5

5,035 points

Dec 9, 2008 1:58 PM in response to Robert P2

So the number wasn't typed in, just displayed with a %, big difference. Yvan has alaready pointed out that 2.1% IS 0.021 in true form. If your doing math with this percent, you better leave it as it is, maybe make a hidden column that you use for math, and a display column that has the decimal x 100 for you to view.

Jason

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