Now that I have my basic bills listed in my worksheet, I think I'd like to clean it up
and format it. Formatting your worksheet can make it look
nice and make it easier to read. You will find some of the font formatting
commands on the Home tab in the Font group. Let's start by making the title bold.
To do this, you first need to select the text you want to make bold.
Now, just click the Bold command. I think I'll do the same with all my bills
here on the left. If I want to format more than one cell at
a time, I can select entire columns and rows, or specific cells.
To select the entire column, just left-click the column heading and the entire column will
appear as selected. To select specific cells in the column, just
left-click a cell and drag your mouse to select the other cells you wish to format.
Then, release the mouse button. Now, you can left-click the Bold command,
and all the selected cells will be formatted. Now I'll just do the same thing to this row.
In addition to the bold command, you also have the Italic and Underline commands that
work the same way. I think the title will look good in italics,
so I'll just select it and click the Italics command.
The Underline command works the same way, but it does have extra menu options.
Let's add the word Total in cell A29. Eventually, I'll add up my monthly bills and
list it in this row. I think it would be good to draw attention
to this, so I'll make it bold and underline it.
To format it with a simple line, just make sure the cell is selected and then click the
Underline command. If you want a double line, click the down
arrow and select the Double Underline option. You can also change the font style, size,
and color. To change the font style, select the cells
you want to modify. I'll just left-click the row 7 heading to
select the entire row, and then left-click the font drop-down box on the Home tab to
select a font style from the list. As you move over the font list, you'll see
the fonts previewed in the spreadsheet. This is the Live Preview feature at work for
you. I think Tahoma will look good.
And I think I'll choose a different font style for the title.
It looks good, but I think the font size needs to be bigger.
Just select the drop- down arrow next to the Font Size box and choose a size option.
Yeah, I think that looks good. While we're changing things, let me show you
how to change the text color. Just select the text, and then click the down
arrow next to the Text Color command. A color palette appears.
I can select the color I'd like, or click More Colors to open a dialog box and access
other colors. Click the color you'd like and then click
OK. There, that looks good.
Now I'm ready to make some additional formatting changes that will make the worksheet easier
to read. You can do this by adding borders and fill
color to your worksheet in select places. In the Font dialog box, you'll find the Fill
Effects command and the Borders command side by side.
Let's go ahead and select the cells we want to add a border to.
So I'll just select the rows, and then click the arrow next to the Borders command on the
Home tab. A menu appears with all sorts of choices.
You can decide whether you only want a border on the top, a border on the bottom, or some
combination. Just left- click an option from the list to
select it, and it will appear in the worksheet.
Adding fill color to cells can be a greatway to format a worksheet so that it is easy to read.
You may have seen some long business reports that have alternating colored rows or columns
to make it easier to read. You can also change the fill color to draw
attention to a specific part or just make it look nicer overall.
Let's change the fill color of the title cells. Just select the cells, then click the Fill
command. A color palette appears.
You can select the color you'd like, or choose More Colors to open a dialog box of colors.
Here, I like this color. It looks good, but I think I need to change
my text color to white if the fill color is dark like this.
I can use the fill color in the same way to format my columns to make them easier to read.
You may have noticed that I have my bill amounts listed each month, but there isn't a dollar
sign in front of each amount. Excel gives you the ability to change the
number format. By default, the numbers appear in the General
category, which means there is no special formatting.
If I want to change the number formatting, I just need to select the cells and then click
the drop-down arrow in the Number Format box. From here, you can see that there are many
ways you can format numbers in your worksheet. Since I'm dealing with monetary amounts, I
think Currency or Accounting will work best. To select one, just left-click it.
And there you go, now the amounts appear in the Currency format .
In the Number group, you have some other options. For example, you can change the US dollar
sign to another currency format. You can change the numbers to percents and
add commas. You can even change how many places appear
after the decimal by clicking the Increase or Decrease Decimal commands.
Before we wrap up, I want to add my due dates in this second column.
I really don't like the way this is formatted. To change the formatting all you have to do
is go to the Number group and click on the drop down arrow.
From here I can choose how I want my date to be displayed.
Do I want it to be in the Short Date format or the Long Date format? I think I'm going
to choose the Short Date Format. To avoid having to do this for each and every
cell in this column, all I have to do is select the remaining cells where I would like enter
my dates. Now, I have to go back to the Number group,
click on the drop- down arrow and click on Short Date again.
This means that no matter what format I try to enter my date, the only format that will
be applied is the Short Date format. Here, I'll show you.
Now I'll click outside of the cell for the changes to apply.
See! This helps with consistency! Things are looking pretty good, but I'd like to center
my title over my entire budget. To do this, I need to left-click cell A1 and
drag it to my right to select all the cells over to and including O1.
Now, on the Home tab, in the Alignment group, I just need to click the Merge & Center
command and the title is now centered over the selected cells.
You'll also notice that the separate column lines no longer appear - that's because the
selected cells were merged into one cell. Formatting rows, columns, and text in Excel
makes data look a little more interesting. Go ahead and start formatting your worksheet
for a customized and appealing look!