My answers always come in fractions by default. how do i change the settings so they come in decimal points by default? further. how do i change the settings to have the answer in decimal points up to 4 places?

The calculator has two Input/Output modes: MathIO and LineIO.

LineIO
LineIO is the old way of entering numbers in calculators and results are always displayed as decimal numbers. Some calculators have a fraction feature and would convert a fraction to a decimal number and back.

MathIO
In MathIO you enter expressions as you would by hand or as you see them written in textbooks.
In this mode, results are by default displayed as fraction or fractions/ radicals.
Conversion
To convert the fraction/radical to decimals you just press the [SD] key. If you press again you cycle through all the available display formats.
So you can (if you want) use the MathIO to manipulate expressions and convert only the last result to decimal. By the way, fractions and radicals are generally more accurate than their decimal representations.

SetUP
If however seeing fractions and radicals is too painful, just set the LineIO as your default mode. To do so press [SHIFT][MODE] to open (SETUP), then select [2:LineIO]

Getting Decimal Answers by Disabling WriteView on the Sharp EL-W516 Calculator

The Sharp EL-W516's WriteView display uses multiple lines to display mathematics as it is seen on a page. Fractions are shown as fractions, exponents as exponents, integrals as integrals, and so on. This makes entering calculations easier, and reduces the chance of errors.

At the same time, calculation results are displayed as fractions (or with roots or pi) whenever possible. Pressing the CHANGE button repeatedly will change these to decimal answers.
If you prefer to always get decimal results you need to disable the WriteView display mode. Doing this will make the calculator display like the Sharp EL-546W when in NORMAL mode. Answers will be given as decimals, but fractions will no longer look like fractions. In general, you will still need to follow the EL-W516 instructions.
Disabling WriteView

Press 2ndF and MATH to enter SET UP. Now press 2 for EDITOR.

There are now two options: 0: W-VIEW, and 1: LINE

Press 1 for Linear display mode to disable the WriteView display, and to get decimals as your answers.

To return to the WriteView display, go through the steps above but press 0 for W-VIEW.

NOTE: It is not possible to have decimals as the default answer form when in WriteView mode.

If the result is already calculated and displayed, press the [S<=>D] key It will convert a fraction or radical to decimal. This is always possible. If the result is decimal it may be converted to a fraction or a radical (Not always possible).

If the expression to be evaluated is still in the command line and you have not pressed the [=] key, you can force the result to be displayed in decimal format by pressing [SHIFT][=] instead of just [=].

More permanently. If you do n o care for fractions and radicals, set the Input/Outpout mode to LineIO. To do do press [SHIFT][MODE] to access the (SETUP) screen and select [2:LineIO]

if you do not want to change your settings There are two ways to foecr calculator to display a result in a decimal format.

1. Before pressing the [=] sign to get the result press [SHIFT] key. thus [SHIFT][=] displays a result in decimal format.
2. If a result is already displayed and it is not in decimal format (fraction or radical) press the [S<=>D] key to convert it to decimal.
3. The [S<=>D] key toggles between formats (fraction/radical to decimal and from decimal to fraction or radical depending on the format used in calculation.)
4. That does not mean that every decimal number can be converted to fractions/radical.

If you want to have all results in decimal format you can configue your calculator to always do so. All it takes is to set LineIO as the default Input/output format.
Press [SHIFT][MODE] to access (Setup) and select [2:LineIO].

Just in case you want to revert to the other IO mode (MthIO)
Press [Shift][MODE][1:MthIO]

Tha calculator has two Input/Output modes: MthIO (also called Natural Display or TextBook display, the default mode) and LineIO the old way where eveything is on a single level line.

In MthIO expression appear as if you write them by hand or as in textbooks: multilevels, fractions are fractions, and roots are radicals. The results are also expressed as a mixture of fractions and radicals.
To set MthIO press [ŜHIFT][MODE] to access the (SETUP) options, thaen select [1:MthIO]

In lineIO, expressions arew typed in on a single level line, fractions are converted immediately to decimal numbers, and so are radicals.
Results are always decimal numbers (Scientific, Fixed, or Normal)
To set LineIO as the default IO mode, press [SHIFT][MODE] to access the (SETUP) options and select [2:LineIO].

If your default mode is set to MthIO, you can still force your result to be a decimal number by pressing not the [=] sign but [SHIFT][=].

If you have a string of calculations that you must to perform to get a single numerical result you can perform all calculations in MthIO, and just before calculating the last result press [SHIFT][=]. You result will be in decimal format.

You can convert any fraction/radical result into a decimal format by pressing the [S<=>D] key between the [ ) ] and the [M+] keys. You can also convert a decimal number into a fraction/radical format (not always because there are limitations to the number of total symbols that can be displayed on screen).

For you the simplest ways to have decimal results is to press the [S<=>D] key after result is displayed or the [SHIF][=] key sequence just before result is calculated.

Here is what you do:

1) Press the Mode button.
2) Scroll down the list that appears until you find "Exact/Approx".
3) Change the setting for "Exact/Approx" to Exact.
4) Press enter to save the settings change.

You have three possible settings for "Exact/Approx":
1) Auto - The calculator will try to determine the best format.
2) Exact - The calculator will always give the answer in fraction form.
3) Approximate - The calculator will always give the answer in decimal form.

Hello,
Since you bent on deactivating the very features that make your calculator so versatile and so powerful, here it is.
Press [SHIFT][MODE][2:LineIO] and you will see no more fractions, nor radicals etc. You asked for it.
Hope it helps.

Hello,
To make sure that results are always in decimal format, put a decimal mark (point) at the end of one integer.
ex: 1./2 or 1/2. or 1./2. display as 0.5, so does 1. + 1/2
To convert from decimal to fraction and from fraction to decimal press a b/c
To convert from proper to improper fractions use [SHIFT][d/c]
Hope it helps.

go to mode and scroll down to exact/approx, exact will give fractions, approximate will give decimal, change it to approximate and press enter twice to save it, that should solve it, let me know of any other questions that you may have