Excel Formatting Manual

8/12/2019 Excel Formatting Manual

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Microsoft Excel FormattingTips & Techniques

Excel design concepts

The Goal

Your goal is always to designing a clean and readable spreadsheetby:

Enhancing and emphasizing your datawhere appropriate

Creating contrastbetween the various sections of yourspreadsheet:

o document titleo column headerso row headerso data of different kinds

The Tools

Use these tools to create contrast and emphasis in your documents.

colors

borders

fonts

text stylesUse no more than two fonts in your document. To create contrastwithin data using a single font, use text styles like boldinganditalicizing. Most documents will use these two kinds of fonts incombination:

A serif font(like Times,shown below, left) for textin yourspreadsheet.

A sans seriffont (like Tahoma,shown below, right) for your

titles and headers.

a a


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The Rules

Dont use too many fonts in your spreadsheet.

Only use color only if youll print or display your spreadsheeton a color device; otherwise, use black and white shadinginstead.

Use color, borders, and styles conservatively,unless youraudience demands radical design.

Let your design enhance the presentation of your data, notoverwhelm it.

Only create a design element that has a purpose. Dontsimply create one because it looks cool.

Know when to break the rules.

Formatting CellsAll about number formatsExcel permits numbers to be formatted in many different ways.Without changing the value of the number in a cell, numberformats allow numbers to be represented so that they can be usedin many different kinds of projects.

Applying number formats

Select the cellscontaining your number(s).

From theFormat menu, choose Cells.

Click on the Number tab. From the list of categories, select the number format that is

best suited to your project. Use the Samplebox to decidewhether the format you chose best represents your number.


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Common Number Formats

Format Name Number looks like. OptionsGeneral 0.33 None

Number 0.33 Number of decimal placesshown, negative number

formatCurrency $0.33 Number of decimal places

shown, currency symbol,negative number format

Accounting $0.33 (lines up decimalpoints in a column of data)

Number of decimal placesshown, currency symbol

Percentage 33% Number of decimal placesshown

Fraction 1/3 Number of digits indenominator, type offraction

Text 0.33 Number is displayedexactly as entered

Other Formats

Format Name Data looks like. OptionsDate 1/1/00 Several date formats

available

Time 15:30; 1:30 pm; etc. Several time formatsavailable

Special Varies Zip code, phone number,social security number

Custom User-defined


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Applying text formats

Select the cellsto receive the new text formatting.


Click on the Fonttab.

To change basic text attributes:o Click on the name of the fontyou wish to use.o Click on the name of the font styleyou want.o Click on the font sizeyou wish to use.

To add or change the underlining in the selected cells, clickon the down-facing arrow next to the Underlinebox.

From the Underlinedrop-down menu, select the underlinestyle that you wish.

To change the color of your text, click on the down-facingarrow next to the Colorbox.

From the Colordrop-down menu, select the text color thatyou wish.


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Applying cell borders

Select the cellsto receive the new border formatting.


Click on theBorderstab.

To add a basic borderoutside the selected cell range,click on the Outlinebutton.

To add borders between cells within the selected cell range,click on the Insidebutton.

Click OK.

To add a custom border, first choose a style for your

border. In the Stylebox at the right side of the Format Cells

window, click on the line style you want for your cellborder.

Click on the down-facing arrownext to the Colorbox todisplay the Color menu. Click on the color that you wantfor your border.

Click on the buttons in the Border area of the FormatCellswindow to add sections of the cell border using thestyle and color you selected. Click OKto apply yourcustom border to the selected cell range.


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Tip: Removing all font formatting

To remove all font formatting, click to place a check mark in theNormal fontcheckbox in the Format Cell swindows Fonttab.This will return the text in the selected cell or cell range to your

default font and style.

Tip: Applying existing formats to unformatted cell s

Select the formatted cell (or cell range).

Click on the Format Painterbutton on the standardtoolbar.

Click on an unformatted cell (or drag across anunformatted cell range) to apply the formatting.

Applying text alignment formatting

Select the cellsto receive the new formatting.


Click on theAlignmenttab.

Click on the drop-down arrow next to the Horizontalbox

to display a drop-down menu of horizontal alignmentoptions.

Click OKto apply the alignment formatting to text within

the selected cells.


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Formatting long text phrases within a cell

In many situations, the line of text you enter in a cell will be widerthan the cell itself. In these situations, the text may be hiddenbeyond the edge of the cell. Although one solution to this problemis to resize the cell, there are two additional solutions: shrinking

the text to fit the cell, and wrapping the textso that it displays onmultiple lines within the cell.

Select the cellsto receive the new formatting.


Click on theAlignmenttab and go to the Text controlareaof the Format Cellswindow.

To shrink the text, click in the Shrink to fitbox.

To wrap text within the cell, click in the Wrap textbox.

Merging cells

Another solution for handling long text phrases is to merge severalcells together so that the text can be fully displayed. To mergeseveral cells:

Select the cellsto be merged.

From theFormat menu, choose Cells. Click on theAlignmenttab.

In the Text controlarea, click in the Merge cellsbox.


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Applying conditional formattingExcels conditional formatting can apply specific formatting tohighlight cells in your worksheet that meet a certain condition. Toset up conditional formatting:

Select the cells that you wish to conditionally format.

From the Formatmenu, choose Conditional Formatting.

Next, specify the condition that will trigger yourformatting.

Click on the second down-facing arrowfrom the left to

display the operatorsmenu. Select the operator that youwant.

Next, enter the condition (or conditions) that will trigger

the formatting. In the example below, any selected cellwhose value is greater than 10 will receive special

formatting.

Finally, click on the Formatbutton to specify the

formatting that will be applied to cells that meet yourcondition. Youll be able to apply special font formatting,borders, and colors to these cells.

When you have finished selecting your formatting, clickOKto close the Format Cellswindow. Click OKagain toapply the conditional formatting to your cells.

Excel Formatting Manual

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