How to Display Fractions in Excel 2003

You may have noticed that if you enter a fraction into a cell in Excel 2003, you end up with anything but a fraction. The default in Excel, if you enter a fraction using a forwards slash, is generally the date format. For example, if you enter 1/2 into a cell and move away from it, that cell will instead read January 2 (in your current Windows default date format). Fortunately, the steps to displaying fractions are fairly straightforward.

Things You'll Need

• Microsoft Excel 2003

Instructions

1. Open Excel by going to the "Start" menu, pointing to "Programs" or "All Programs", and clicking on "Microsoft Excel" in the "Programs" list. Or you can open Excel by double-clicking a shortcut icon on your desktop or task bar.

2. Open a blank or existing worksheet. Select the cells you will want to use to enter fractions by clicking on one of the outer cells in that range, holding down the left mouse button and dragging your mouse across the range of cells that you want to select. If you only want to format a single cell, simply click on that cell.

3. Click on "Format" in the toolbar. Click "Cells". The "Format Cellsw" dialog box will open. Make sure you are on the "Number" tab.

4. Click "Fraction" in the "Category" list. Under "Type", choose how you want your fractions displayed. You can choose up to one, up to two or up to three digits, or take it even further and choose "As Halves", "As Quarters" and so forth, which will round your fraction the the nearest, half, quarter or whatever you choose.

5. Click "OK". When you enter your data into the cells you formatted, your fractions will now appear just as you defined.

Tips & Warnings

• If you are certain you won't need to use these cells in any type of calculation you can format the cell as Text and your data will appear just as you type it in.

• If you want to reset a cell to default formatting, click on the cell, go to the "Format" menu, choose cell and click on "General" in the "Category" list.

• You can also bring up the "Format Cells" dialog by right clicking a cell and clicking "Format".