Working with Decimal Places

All of Excel's number formats use either two or zero decimal places. The exception is General format, which uses as many places as needed for a value. You can establish a fixed number of decimal places or let Excel automatically round numbers for you. The following sections examine both ways to work with decimal places.

Establishing a Fixed Number of Decimal Places

To establish a fixed number of decimal places, use a numeric format other than General format. Two tools on the Formatting toolbar enable you to change the number of decimal places for numbers. The tools are Increase Decimal (its icon contains .0 and .00 with a left arrow) and Decrease Decimal (its icon contains .0 and .00 with a right arrow). Here's how these tools work:

• Click the Increase Decimal button each time you want to move the decimal point one place to the left.

• Click the Decrease Decimal button each time you want to move the decimal point one place to the right.

Open you're My Budget worksheet and change the number of decimal places from two to zero for the numeric values. Doing so shows you how simple Excel makes such formatting.