Formatting (1.6%) but don't want it to be red

[Dallas CPA]

Okay this should be simple, but it doesn't appear to be possible through regular formatting.

I have a spreadsheet of percentages, with one digit after the decimal sign. I would like negative percentages to be displayed as (1.6%) instead of -1.6%. But only way to accomplish this is to have it displayed as red, which I do not want. Anybody know how to get the desired result ?

Many thanks. Glad I found this board, look forward to becoming an active user.

 

[MrKowz]

Welcome to the forums!

Apply the following custom number format:

0.0%;(0.0%)

 

[shg]

Or _(0.0%_);(0.0%) so the symbols align.

 

[BradA]

Or _(0.0%_);(0.0%) so the symbols align.

This is awesome, but will you explain it to me? Don't the parenthesis in what you posted make the entry appear in parenthesis? I tried it and I see that it works but I guess I don't understand what's going on with that format.

 

[Scott Huish]

The underscore tells the format to skip the width of the next character.

See here: http://www.ozgrid.com/Excel/CustomFormats.htm