Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, and 2013. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Notation for Thousands and Millions.
Jim wonders how he can get Excel to automatically display numbers using "k" for thousands and "m" for millions. As an example, if a cell contains the value $470,000 he would like it displayed as $470k; if it contains the value $1,107,432 he would like it displayed as $1.1m.
One obvious method is to create a formula that will display the information as desired. The following formula will take into account the magnitude of the number in cell B2 and then provide a formatted text string appropriate to that magnitude:
=IF(B2 < 1000,B2,IF(B2 < 1000000, "$" & ROUND(B2/1000,1) & "k", "$" & ROUND(B2/1000000,1) & "m"))
Remember that this is a single formula and should be entered entirely on one line. The drawback with such an approach, of course, is that the formula takes up space within your worksheet. To get around this you could, instead, create a custom format that will simply affect the display of the number in the cell.
To create a custom format, display the Home tab of the ribbon and click the small icon at the lower-right corner of the Number group. In the resulting dialog box, click Custom at the left side. Here's the custom format you should create in the dialog box:
[>1000000]$#.0,,"m";[>1000]$#,"k";$#,##0
This format will display both millions and thousands using the desired notation. If the number is below a thousand then it will be displayed without any special notation. As appropriate, values are rounded to one decimal place.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (6146) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, and 2013. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Notation for Thousands and Millions.
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2016-01-10 09:09:48
Paul
Also, can you use this complexity with the TEXT function?
2016-01-10 09:07:30
Paul
hi,
Useful tip, thanks.
But how do you deal with minus numbers in the same way?
e.g. it displays -£500,000, instead I'd like -£500k
Tried tweaking format but no success.
thanks
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, and 2013. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: 
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