With Excel, people typically have an obnoxious amount of numbers after the decimal point. You can easily get rid of them using the steps in this tech-recipes tutorial.
By default, Excel spreadsheets have too many digits displayed after the decimal point. This makes the spreadsheet unreadable and inappropriate in many cases. One should set his 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, 112/67 is easier to digest and understand.
To select the number of digits displayed after the decimal point, use the following steps:
- 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
