The look and feel of your spreadsheet - and whether or not it's going to be easy to read
- has a lot to do with the formatting choices you make.
Formatting the text and some of the cells in this fitness chart, for example, could
really add interest and make the data easier to read.
I'd like to start by selecting the cell that contains "Fitness Progress Chart" and making
the text bigger, like a proper title.
Just go to the Font group on the Home tab, and click the drop-down arrow next to Size.
You'll see a preview of the results as you go down the list.
I think 16 looks good.
Maybe we could go a little bigger, though.
Grow and Shrink are another option for changing the font size.
Just click and… perfect.
To change the actual font, click the drop-down arrow here, and make your way through the
list - you'll get that live preview again.
I think I like this one, because it's different but still very easy to read, which makes it
a good choice for the title.
So, how about color?
These are your options.
You can go with one of the Theme Colors here, or, if you don't see anything you like, click
More Colors.
This bright orange should fit the color scheme I have in mind.
Another way to make your text stand out is to use Bold, Italic, or Underline.
Let's try Italic, and maybe Bold too.
There - that's more like what I was going for.
Now I'm ready to add some formatting to the rest of the worksheet.
At a glance, it's kind of hard to tell the header row from the rest of the chart, because
it just lacks definition.
We can easily fix that by giving the header a unique fill color.
All you have to do is open the menu next to the Fill Color command and make your choice.
A great dark blue.
Now I just need to change my text to something lighter.
I also want to show you how to change the placement (or alignment) of your text, using
the options in the Alignment group.
In addition to left, center, and right, text can be aligned to the bottom, middle, or top
of the cell.
Aligning the header text in the middle center should make it nice and easy to read.
Why don't we give the rest of the chart some color now, and then modify the whole thing
to include borders that'll define the cells.
The Borders command gives you lots of options, including top and bottom borders, a thick
outside border - even different line colors and line styles.
For a border that goes around the outside and in between cells, choose All Borders.
Finally, one of Excel's most useful features is its ability to format dates and numbers
depending on what you need.
For example, it would help me to know not only that dates that I took these measurements,
but also the days of the week.
Just click the drop-down arrow for the Number Format command, and choose a format - in my
case, the Long Date.
You can accomplish a lot of things with date and number formatting.
Take this column of percentages, just numbers with a decimal place.
Switching to the Percentage format will instantly display them properly.
There we go!
What a big difference formatting can make.
Not only does my worksheet look nice - it's also easier to read and understand
the data.