Formatting Overview

 

There are six categories that you can manipulate when formatting cells: Number, Alignment, Font, Border, Fill, Protection (Will Be Discussed Next Entry)

The following discusses the different types of formatting you can impose on a cell and what each might do.

Number: What type of value is stored in the cell

General: 32309, sdasdfasdgfa

- General format cells have no specific number format

Number: 5.00, 1234.256

- Used for general display of numbers. Currency and Accounting offer specialized formatting for monetary values.
- Can format with decimal places or whether or not to include 1000 separators.

Currency: $5.00, ៛1234.567

- Used for general monetary values. Use accounting to align decimal points in a column.
- Can format with decimal places or currency symbols.

Accounting: $5.00, ៛1234.567

- Used to line up the currency symbols and decimal points in a column.
- Can format with decimal places or currency symbols.

Date: 3/4/2012, Wednesday, March 14, 2012

- Displays date and time serial numbers as date values. Date formats that began with an * change depending on the location. 
- Can format using type and location.

Time: 1:30:55 PM, 13:30

- Displays date and time serial numbers as date values. Time formats that begin with an * change depending on the location.
- Can format using type and locale (location).

Percentage: 500.00%, 123.456%

- Multiplies the cell value by 100 and displays the result with a percent symbol.
- Can format using decimal places.

Fraction: 5, 21/25

- Displays the cell value as a fraction.
- Can format using type (up to one digit, two digits, three digits, halves, quarters, eighths, sixteenths, tenths, and hundredths).

Scientific: 5.00E + 00 (5), 1.23E + 04 (12,345)

- Displays the cell value in scientific notation.
- Can format using decimal places.

Text: 12345, asdfg

- Text format cells are treated as text even when a number is entered into the cell. The cell is displayed exactly as entered.

Special: 12345, 00001-2345

- Useful for tracking list and database values.
- Can format using type (Zip Code, Zip Code + 4, Phone Number, Social Security Number) and locale (location) (English (United States), Javanese (Javanese, Indonesia).

Custom: 0:00, 00000000

- Type the number format code, using one of the existing codes as a starting point.

Alignment: How the values are aligned within the cell

Text Alignment: 

- Horizontal, Vertical, Indent, Justify Distributed

- You can align values in the middle, top, bottom, right, left, or any variation of the above within the cell through 'Horizontal' and 'Vertical'.

- You can also customize how text is distributed through the cell under 'Horizontal' and 'Vertical'.

- 'Justify distributed' just means that the first and last word of each line is aligned to the left and right margin respectively.

Text Control: 

- Wrap Text, Shrink to Fit, Merge Cells

- 'Wrap Text' just means that values that go past how much a cell could fit normally will wrap around and extend the cell downwards. Shrink to Fit just means the values are shrunk so that they can fit within the cell and merge cells just means that the cells will be combined.

Right-to-Left: 

- Text Direction (Left-to-Right, Right-to-Left)

Orientation: 

- Use to change the degree of the text or orientation.

Font: What fonts and types of fonts represent the values in the cell

Font: 

- Font Type (Calibri, Times New Roman, etc. )

Font Style: 

- Regular, Italic, Bold, Bold Italic

Size: 

- Size of the Text (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, etc. )

Underline: 

- Underline (None, Single, Double, Single Accounting, Double Accounting)

Color: 

- Use to change color

Effects:  

- Strikethrough, Superscript, Subscript

Line: The lines or borders that might go in or around a cell

Line: 

- Style, Color 

Presets: 

- None, Outline Inside 

Border: 

- How the borders should be placed on the cells

Background: The colors or patterns imposed behind the values of a cell

Background Color: 

- Fill Effects (Gradient), Colors

- In order to have a gradient that changes based on the value of the cell, you have to apply a rule through Conditional Formatting.

Pattern Color and Pattern Style:

- Colored Stripes, Polka Dots, etc.