Add a custom symbol to a field in Excel

John Boukis — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:58:18 +0000

I came across this method when attempting to add a percent (%) sign to my data without Excel multiplying all of the numbers by one hundred, as it does when formatting as a percent. I could find no way to just append a symbol to my data, except, for some reason only Bill Gates knows, there is a feature to add a custom currency sign to Excel. So these instructions add a custom dollar sign to the sheet, as though you are entering currency numbers from a country that does not use the dollar sign. However, the symbol can be any symbol you choose. Again, I will add a percent sign, because that was my mission for my customer.

I am working in Excel 2000. Hey, why upgrade? Any feedback on the options in later versions of Excel is certainly welcome.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1) Right click the field(s)

2) Select FORMAT CELLS

3) Select CUSTOM.

4) In the TYPE field, type this: ##.#[$%]

* Use your symbol of choice in place of the percent sign.

The pound signs represent the numbers in your data, so adjust the number of them before or after the decimal as necessary. The period is a decimal, of course. The bracketed expression is telling Excel that “In this country, we use a percent sign rather than a dollar sign.”

Now you can enter data, or paste number values (PASTE/SPECIAL/VALUES) from another sheet into these newly formatted cells, and

this: 3.19

will appear like this: 3.19%

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Add a custom symbol to a field in Excel