WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:11.349 --> 00:00:16.000 In Excel 2013, the look and feel of your worksheet has a lot to do with the formatting choices 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:17.160 you make. 00:00:17.160 --> 00:00:20.900 If we added some formatting to this fitness chart, for example, we could make it easier 00:00:20.900 --> 00:00:23.750 to read and more visually appealing. 00:00:23.750 --> 00:00:27.760 I'd like to start by selecting the cell that contains "Fitness Progress Chart" and making 00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:30.500 the text bigger, like a proper title. 00:00:30.500 --> 00:00:35.270 Just go to the Font group on the Home tab, and click the drop-down arrow next to Size. 00:00:35.270 --> 00:00:38.120 You'll see a preview of the results as you go down the list. 00:00:38.120 --> 00:00:41.690 I think 24 looks good. 00:00:41.690 --> 00:00:45.050 Maybe we could go a little bigger though. 00:00:45.050 --> 00:00:50.010 Increase and Decrease are two other options for quickly changing the size of your text. 00:00:50.010 --> 00:00:54.469 All you have to do is click the command and… perfect. 00:00:54.469 --> 00:00:58.280 To change the actual font, click the drop-down arrow here. 00:00:58.280 --> 00:01:03.510 Then make your way down the list—you'll get that live preview again. 00:01:03.510 --> 00:01:05.710 I think I'll go with this one. 00:01:05.710 --> 00:01:10.200 It's different but still very easy to read, which makes it a good choice for the title. 00:01:10.200 --> 00:01:13.040 So, how about some color? 00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:16.990 To view your options, click the arrow next to the Font Color command. 00:01:16.990 --> 00:01:21.140 You can go with one of the theme colors here… or if you don't see anything you like, go 00:01:21.140 --> 00:01:24.549 ahead and click More Colors. 00:01:24.549 --> 00:01:29.880 This bright pink should look nice with the color scheme I have in mind. 00:01:29.880 --> 00:01:34.659 Another way to make your text stand out is to use Bold, Italic, or Underline. 00:01:34.659 --> 00:01:39.420 Bold should be a good choice in this example… now the text really stands out and is much 00:01:39.420 --> 00:01:41.770 easier to read. 00:01:41.770 --> 00:01:44.630 I think I'm ready to add some formatting to the rest of the worksheet. 00:01:44.630 --> 00:01:48.850 At a glance, it's kind of hard to tell the header row from the rest of the chart because 00:01:48.850 --> 00:01:50.710 it just isn't distinct. 00:01:50.710 --> 00:01:54.930 We can easily fix that by giving the cells a unique fill color. 00:01:54.930 --> 00:01:59.369 All you have to do is open the menu next to the Fill Color command and make your choice. 00:01:59.369 --> 00:02:03.640 Dark gray should be a nice contrast to the pink we already have in the title. 00:02:03.640 --> 00:02:09.039 Now I just need to change the color of my text to something lighter. 00:02:09.039 --> 00:02:13.480 You can also use cell styles to quickly apply different formatting to your workbook. 00:02:13.480 --> 00:02:16.960 Let's give it a try on the rest of the chart. 00:02:16.960 --> 00:02:20.050 When you're ready, click the Cell Styles command. 00:02:20.050 --> 00:02:26.780 Then mouse over the styles for a preview… and click the one you want. 00:02:26.780 --> 00:02:30.920 As you can see at this point, adding a fill color to a range of cells causes the lines 00:02:30.920 --> 00:02:32.860 in between to disappear. 00:02:32.860 --> 00:02:37.930 I'd like to change that by adding borders to the entire chart. 00:02:37.930 --> 00:02:41.240 Click the drop-down arrow next to the Borders command, and you'll find lots of different 00:02:41.240 --> 00:02:42.300 options. 00:02:42.300 --> 00:02:49.330 For example, you can add a top and bottom border… a thick outside border… even different 00:02:49.330 --> 00:02:51.910 line colors and styles. 00:02:51.910 --> 00:02:58.510 For a border that goes around the outside—and in between the cells—choose All Borders. 00:02:58.510 --> 00:03:02.340 I also want to show you how to change the placement (or alignment) of your text, using 00:03:02.340 --> 00:03:04.980 the options in the Alignment group. 00:03:04.980 --> 00:03:11.460 In addition to left, center, and right, text can also be aligned to the bottom, middle, 00:03:11.460 --> 00:03:13.660 or top of the cell. 00:03:13.660 --> 00:03:17.960 Aligning the text in the middle center should make the chart nice and easy to read. 00:03:17.960 --> 00:03:22.920 Finally, one of Excel's most useful features is its ability to format dates and numbers 00:03:22.920 --> 00:03:25.010 for you automatically. 00:03:25.010 --> 00:03:28.440 For example, it would help me to know not only that dates that I took these measurements, 00:03:28.440 --> 00:03:31.150 but also the days of the week. 00:03:31.150 --> 00:03:35.620 All you have to do is click the drop-down arrow next to the Number Format command… 00:03:35.620 --> 00:03:37.140 then choose a format. 00:03:37.140 --> 00:03:40.810 In this case, we'll choose the Long Date. 00:03:40.810 --> 00:03:43.900 You can accomplish lots of things with date and number formatting. 00:03:43.900 --> 00:03:47.620 Take this column of percentages, just numbers with a decimal place. 00:03:47.620 --> 00:03:52.960 Switching to the Percentage format will instantly display them properly. 00:03:52.960 --> 00:03:54.150 There we go! 00:03:54.150 --> 00:03:56.810 What a big difference formatting can make. 00:03:56.810 --> 00:04:00.730 Not only does my worksheet look better than it did before—it's also easier to review 00:04:00.730 --> 00:04:01.310 the data.