Excel 2016 For Dummies

Chapter 3

Making It All Look Pretty

IN THIS CHAPTER

Selecting the cells to format

Formatting data tables with the Format as Table command button

Using various number formats on cells containing values

Adjusting column width and row height in a worksheet

Hiding columns and rows in a worksheet

Formatting cell ranges from the Home tab of the Ribbon

Formatting cell ranges using Styles and the Format Painter

Formatting cells under certain conditions

In spreadsheet programs like Excel, you normally don’t worry about how the stuff looks until after you enter all the data in the worksheets of your workbook and save it all safe and sound (see Chapters 1 and 2). Only then do you pretty up the information so that it’s clearer and easy to read.

After you decide on the types of formatting that you want to apply to a portion of the worksheet, you can select all the cells to beautify and then click the appropriate tool or choose the menu command to apply those formats to the cells. However, before you discover all the fabulous formatting features you can use to dress up cells, you need to know how to pick the group of cells that you want to apply the formatting to — that is, selecting the cells or, alternatively, making a cell selection.

Be aware, also, that entering data into a cell and formatting that data are two completely different things in Excel. Because they’re separate, you can change the entry in a formatted cell, and new entries assume the cell’s formatting. This enables you to ...