WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:07.570 --> 00:00:12.100 You may have already noticed that Excel allows you to type just about anything 00:00:12.100 --> 00:00:16.960 into your worksheet. Along with text, you can use many different kinds of numbers 00:00:16.960 --> 00:00:23.039 such as decimals, percentages, dollar amounts, dates, and more. 00:00:23.039 --> 00:00:28.140 To do this, Excel uses a feature called number formats and it's really important 00:00:28.140 --> 00:00:30.470 to understand how they work. 00:00:30.470 --> 00:00:35.790 Number formats tell Excel exactly what type of data you're using. When you enter 00:00:35.790 --> 00:00:41.720 something into a cell, Excel try to apply the right number format automatically. 00:00:41.720 --> 00:00:46.890 For example, watch what happens when we enter a calendar day into this sell such 00:00:46.890 --> 00:00:52.210 as 1/1/2015 for January 1st. 00:00:52.210 --> 00:00:55.920 if you look at the number format drop-down menu on the Home tab, you'll 00:00:55.920 --> 00:00:59.840 see that this is now using the date number format. 00:00:59.840 --> 00:01:05.180 This tells Excel that we're working with a calendar day and not another type of number. 00:01:05.180 --> 00:01:09.060 If you click the drop-down menu, you'll see that there are several other number 00:01:09.060 --> 00:01:14.790 format to choose from. The general format at the top is the default number format 00:01:14.790 --> 00:01:19.460 for every cell in your spreadsheet. If Excel isn't able to guess what type of 00:01:19.460 --> 00:01:25.120 data you're using, it will usually just leave the general number applied to that cell. 00:01:25.120 --> 00:01:29.680 You know, in this example, I think I'd like to modify the number format to use 00:01:29.680 --> 00:01:35.890 the long date option instead; that way, it'll be easier to read in our spreadsheet. 00:01:35.890 --> 00:01:37.590 And there we go! 00:01:37.590 --> 00:01:41.469 When you select a cell what number formatting you'll see the actual value 00:01:41.469 --> 00:01:46.659 of that cell in the formula bar. So the long date number format hasn't changed 00:01:46.659 --> 00:01:51.440 the actual data—it only changes the way it's displayed. 00:01:51.440 --> 00:01:56.940 And number formats don't just make our data easier to read. For example, since 00:01:56.940 --> 00:02:00.880 Excel understands that this is a calendar date, we can use the fill handle 00:02:00.880 --> 00:02:09.069 in the lower right corner of the cell to continue this series of dates. 00:02:09.069 --> 00:02:13.209 So now we have January 2nd, January 3rd, and so on. 00:02:13.209 --> 00:02:17.900 Definitely a lot easier than entering each of these one by one! 00:02:17.900 --> 00:02:22.629 Unfortunately, Excel doesn't always understand what we're trying to type the 00:02:22.629 --> 00:02:27.840 same way that a person would. Because of this, Excel requires you to enter your 00:02:27.840 --> 00:02:30.540 data in a pretty specific way. 00:02:30.540 --> 00:02:36.580 For example, watch what happens when we type January 1st in this cell. 00:02:36.580 --> 00:02:41.820 As you can see, the number format has not changed. This cell is still just using the 00:02:41.820 --> 00:02:45.820 general number format, and that means Excel didn't understand what we wanted. 00:02:45.820 --> 00:02:49.840 It also means our fill handle isn't going to work correctly. 00:02:49.840 --> 00:02:55.060 Instead, it just copies the data from this first cell, which is not what we want. 00:02:56.050 --> 00:03:01.819 To fix this, we'll need to change this into something Excel can understand, such as 1/1/2015 00:03:01.819 --> 00:03:08.680 or just January 1 without the "st". 00:03:08.680 --> 00:03:10.520 There we go! 00:03:10.520 --> 00:03:15.390 So you can see that Excel has applied a custom date format to this cell and that's because 00:03:15.390 --> 00:03:17.770 it understood what we wanted. 00:03:17.770 --> 00:03:22.230 And now, just like before, we can see the cell's actual value in the formula bar 00:03:22.230 --> 00:03:28.140 and we can even use the fill handle to continue this series of dates. 00:03:28.140 --> 00:03:34.480 Let's take a look at another useful, but potentially confusing, number format: percentages. 00:03:34.480 --> 00:03:37.180 Remember how we said before that certain data needs to be 00:03:37.180 --> 00:03:38.910 entered in a certain way? 00:03:38.910 --> 00:03:43.670 Well, when you type a number followed by the percent sign (%) and press Enter, 00:03:43.670 --> 00:03:48.170 the percentage number format will be applied automatically to that cell. 00:03:48.170 --> 00:03:52.540 In this example, let's say that we're working with an 8% sales tax rate. 00:03:52.540 --> 00:03:57.299 As you may remember from math class, percentages can also be written as a 00:03:57.299 --> 00:04:02.590 decimal number. For example, if I change the number format for this cell back to 00:04:02.590 --> 00:04:09.390 general, it'll appear as 0.08, which is just another way of writing 8%. 00:04:09.390 --> 00:04:12.290 I point this out mainly because it's easy to 00:04:12.290 --> 00:04:16.040 make a mistake with percentage formatting if you're not being careful. 00:04:16.040 --> 00:04:19.760 For example, if we type 8 into an empty cell, 00:04:19.799 --> 00:04:23.050 and then apply percentage formatting afterward, 00:04:23.050 --> 00:04:28.639 Excel with think that we meant 800%, which which isn't even close to what we wanted! 00:04:28.639 --> 00:04:33.129 In our experience, and it's best just to include the percent sign whenever you're 00:04:33.129 --> 00:04:39.400 entering a percentage into Excel; that way there's much less risk of making a mistake like this. 00:04:39.400 --> 00:04:44.300 Ok, there's just one last thing we'd like to point out. Below the number format drop-down menu, 00:04:44.300 --> 00:04:49.139 you'll see these small buttons with a left and right arrow. 00:04:49.139 --> 00:04:54.819 These commands allow you to control how many decimal places are displayed in your cell. 00:04:55.180 --> 00:05:01.770 As an example, let's say I'm working with a currency value like $19.95. 00:05:01.770 --> 00:05:06.780 Now as you can see Excel, applied currency formatting when we included the 00:05:06.780 --> 00:05:08.870 dollar sign in this cell. 00:05:08.870 --> 00:05:14.090 You can show more decimal places to increase precision or show fewer to 00:05:14.090 --> 00:05:18.710 simplify your data or even round to the nearest whole number. 00:05:18.710 --> 00:05:23.840 Just like before, we're not changing the actual value of this cell, as we can see 00:05:23.840 --> 00:05:29.240 in the formula bar; we're just making it easier to read in our spreadsheet. 00:05:29.240 --> 00:05:33.400 Now that you know how number formats work, take some time to ensure that 00:05:33.400 --> 00:05:36.340 you're using them correctly in your spreadsheet.