Excel 2003: Applying and Modifying Cell Formats

Lesson 26: Applying and Modifying Cell Formats

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Introduction

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

Format cell styles using the Format Cells dialog box
Format numbers, alignment, font, border, and patterns in a spreadsheet

Applying and modifying cell formats

You may want to modify the appearance of your spreadsheet to make it more visually appealing. Excel allows you to make cosmetic changes to cell formatting.

To apply and modify cell formats:

Use your mouse to select the cells you want to modify.
Select FormatCells from the main menu. The Format Cells dialog box will appear.
Decide how you want to format the cells.
Select the tabs that allow you to make the desired changes.
Use the Format Cells drop-down menus and tools to make the desired changes.
Click OK.

In the Format Cells dialog box you can change many things, including:

Number formatting
Alignment formatting
Font formatting
Border formatting

Challenge!

If you have not already done so in a previous challenge, download and save the Employee Sales spreadsheet.

Open the Employee Sales spreadsheet.
Change the font to Verdana.
Change the font size to 14.
Make the column headings blue.
Continue to format the cells until you are comfortable using the Number, Alignment, Font, Border, and Patterns tabs in the Format Cells dialog box.
Save and close the spreadsheet.