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Why do percentages with decimals default to 0 decimals, even though "Auto" is labeled the default?

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If I create a new spreadsheet and enter a figure like "8.76%" into a cell, this will be displayed as 9% by default.

While that doesn't seem ideal (to me), this isn't my real issue. My question is, when I select the Decimals drop-down where "0" is displayed, the list of options shows that "Auto" is the default:

So is "Auto" the actual default for the precision for an entered percentage, but I've overridden this setting somewhere? And/or is there a way to change this so that the default actually is "Auto"? Or am I misunderstanding the label?

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4 comments

Date Votes
  • Linda Walter
    • Edited

    Thanks for raising this Andrew. I should have thought to do this a long time ago as well. I have that same question/problem in that I want the default to be 0 for numbers, but it always defaults to 2, even though auto is showing 0.  (This is the same problem for currency as well.)

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  • Andrew McKenzie

    Exactly right Linda Walter; I've observed that one too but forgot about it. I compared this to Excel, which also forces exactly two decimals (only) onto Numbers, so maybe some of this is intended to match Excel's behavior? Although the percentage behavior is still different:

    Either way, the use of "Default" in the labels seems confusing/wrong for both types.

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  • Isabel Messore

    Hi Andrew McKenzie,

    Really solid question here. While I'm sure there are a myriad of thoughtful reasons why value formatting was set up the way that it was originally, we've opted to solve this problem by putting more control over how value formatting works in the hands of file owners via Value Format Styles (beta).

    VFS allows users to specify the defaults of each value format from the style guide editor. VFS is in beta today and will be launched later this year. If you think this beta feature would be a good fit for you, please let me know and I can coordinate the process of getting you added to the beta program!

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  • Andrew McKenzie

    Thanks Isabel Messore—and, yes, we would be interested in joining the VFS beta if possible.

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