Percent data showing incorrectly

When I type 100 and I want it to dispaly as 100%, instead it displays as 10000%, 10 as 1000% and 1 as 100%

I tried every possible format setting, not sure what is going on or how to fix this.

Screenshot From 2025-03-16 10-30-49

OS - Fedora Linux 41
LO - 25.2.1.2 (Flatpak)
Database - HSQLDB

Write 100% then. Or write 1 and it will be shown as 100%

A percentage is a way to say “some number of 1/100ths”. Meaning, that “20%” means “20 * 1/100”, which means that 20% is another way to write 0,2. And 100% is, naturally, the same a 100 * 1/100, equal to simply 1. You should understand that, because in a formula like =420*15%, where you want to find out what is 15% of 420, the expression is actually =420*0,15, giving you the proper answer.

And yes, a simple number 100 is 100 times larger than 100 * 1/100, meaning it is equal to 10000%.

Well yes it makes sense but I expected “natural” typing, In google sheets for example when you type 20 in a cell formatted as percent it will display 20%, a 1 is 1%. I guess LO doesn’t work that way.

:slight_smile: Natural typing for 20% is 20% :wink: And yes, we don’t use Google way of handling this specific aspect. Rather, we behave like Gnumeric and Excel.

the topic is tagged with base maybe by accident or by purpose ?

… but it was @Cyberian who mentioned “google sheets” first :wink:

calc works exactly this way, if the cell is already »preformatted« as percent

1 Like

Not for @Cyberian as he/she

should behave ?
like my:

Version: 25.2.1.2 (AARCH64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: d3abf4aee5fd705e4a92bba33a32f40bc4e56f49
CPU threads: 4; OS: Linux 6.6; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: de-DE (de_DE.UTF-8); UI: de-DE
Flatpak
Calc: threaded

I guess it should…

  • Maybe he omitted one or two possible format codes
  • If not I’d test again in safe mode
  • Maybe @Cyberian simply tested format codes after input, wich would not chang the value already entered.

I’m sorry but I have to disagree with you. In accountancy typing 20 is natural for 20%. not 0.2.

I came here searching for an answer to this problem too. I never had this issue in sheets, excel, or even Collabora. Only Calc seems to do things differently.

I don’t want to change the way I type to meet the requirements of someone else. This is why I made the switch away from Microsh*t. So, what is the solution to this? is there a setting I can change? or custom formatting I can setup through 1000+ records?

Collabora Office, and Collabora Online, uses exactly the same code included in LibreOffice. (Disclaimer: I work for Collabora Productivity.) So if you have “this problem” (which exactly, by the way? You haven’t explained it sufficiently like “I do this; in Collabora Online (version X), I get this, and in LibreOffice (version Y), I get that”…) - you likely have something in configuration…

Or that’s just a different operation. Exactly because users expect that, we have always (since LibreOffice 3.3, and in OOo before that) accepted the entry in a percent-formatted cell as percentage (and even show the percent sign automatically, while you enter numbers there). But when user enters into formula bar, we do not apply any corrections.

Cf. this in LibreOffice 25.8:

percent_lo_25.8

to this in Excel:

percent_excel

2 Likes

My apologies @mikekaganski you are correct, I have not explained myself very well and I may have come across a little passive aggressive. Please know, this was not my intention. I was just frustrated at the time. If you would prefer I can open a new thread?

Background:
I have an excel spreadsheet created years ago for accountancy. For many years this was the only office suite that created/modified and saved this particular spreadsheet. Last year we switched our cloud storage to Nextcloud and where Collabora Online - Built-in CODE Server is used alongside Nextcloud Office. All working just dandy.

My own Office PC has made the switch to Linux (KDE using Plasma 6) and a fresh copy of LibreOffice for offline editing. (there is an issue with theming here too but I’ve narrowed it down Wayland or plasma causing it)

The Sheet setup:
Usual table in calc/sheets/etc that you would expect to calculate VAT rates. This wasn’t created by myself originally, and after seeing your gif, I’m starting to think that over the numerous versions of apps and programs that this maybe a unique minor bug with the sheet itself.

Each column is formatted correctly (currency, text, percentage etc)

A snippet

Currency ex vat percentage currency inc vat
100 20% 120
10 5% 200

The Problem (at least for me):

While using Collabora Online, or Excel, in the percentage column, I am conditioned (for 10+ years) to automatically type 20 for 20%, 5 for 5% etc.

In LibreOffice Calc, 20 turns to 2000, 5 for 500. I understand I can type 0.2 for 20% and achieve the result I wish. I would prefer to use the method I am used to. (old habits die hard)

https://streamable.com/admaw0

Share the file, so somebody can check, if you can’t do this yourself. The first question is: Are the cells prepared for/formatted as percent values? Because your first assumption is flawed:

If an accountant wants to add 20 + 30 he/she will type 20 and 30, so some magic has to be done to tell the software where to convert to 0.2 aka 20%
.
As you mentioned “numerous versions”: Hunting bugs usually requires to name your OS, version of LO and how you installed (like snap, flatpack, portable install etc) as one of the first steps.
.
If your setup is flawed/compromised, check safe-mode. But start with checking the formatting of your cells. What Mike’s gif shows is default behaviour for long years…

On your video, what seems strange for me is the many disabled buttons on the toolbar.

I don’t think those are disabled buttons, I think that’s a serious theme issue I’m having.

Previously, I was on Windows with Office 365. Now I’m using Kubuntu 25.04, KDE 6.3.4, LibreOffice version 25.2.5.2 (x86_64)

LibreOffice was originally installed on the system (snap, I believe) While trying to hunt down the theme problem I removed that and installed the FlatPack version under the advise of another forum. (maybe I’ll get better luck here)

Unfortunately I cannot share the file under GDPR. I believe they are formatted correctly as they have always worked in the past and when I’ve looked, they look right?
I don’t understand what you mean by my first assumption is flawed? I clearly don’t know what I’m talking about in the first place - That’s why I’m here :sweat_smile:

Just a quick disclaimer, I’m not an accountant, I prepare the files for an accountant.