Excel: Set Your Number of Decimal Places

Contributed by davak February 8, 2004  
Tagged: Microsoft Excel

People typically have an obnoxious amount of numbers after the decimal point. Get rid of them!

Typically excel spreadsheets have way too many digits displayed after the decimal point. This makes the spreadsheet unreadable and inappropriate. One should set their spreadsheet to only display the correct amount of significant digits.

For example, blood pressure machines typically measure to the nearest whole number. How helpful is it to know that an average blood pressure during an experiment is 112.1231/67.2112? Obviously, 112/76 is easier to digest and understand.

To select the number of digits displayed after the decimal point:

1. Select the Tools menu
2. Select Options
3. Select the Edit tab
4. Select the Fixed decimal Places checkbox
5. Select the appropriate number of places
6. Click OK

If you need some assistance calculating significant digits, try this page:
http://www.physics.uoguelph.ca/tutorials/sig_fig/SIG_dig.htm