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Basic Microsoft Excel skills will be required for some of your Glenn College courses and may prove very helpful

for others. This four-part tutorial addresses getting started with Excel, performing calculations and functions,

conducting data analysis, and basic formatting.

If you are interested in watching a 10-minute video overview of basic Excel data creation and formatting, here is

a YouTube video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L1OVkw2ZQ8.

Tutorial 4/4: Basic Formatting

This document covers (click each link to skip to that section)

Formatting data (cell information)

o Data types

Resize a column

Formatting dollar values

Formatting negative numbers

o More formatting … worksheet appearance

Merge cells

Making text appear Bold

Changing the cell’s color

Changing the font color of text in a cell

o Still more formatting … data and worksheet appearance

Resizing all of the columns simultaneously

Deleting cell contents

Deleting a row

Insert a new row

o Guess what? More formatting (final touches)

Centering data in a column

Cell and table borders

Copy/paste into another program (Microsoft Word)

Inserting a basic graph

o Formatting graph axes

This tutorial uses the Excel file, Tutorial 4_Formatting.xlsx. Open this file.

Notice that there are three worksheets. Each of these will be used to demonstrate a data or text formatting skill

included in this tutorial.

Tutorial 1/4: Getting Started

Tutorial 2/4: Calculations & Functions

Tutorial 3/4: Statistical Analysis

Tutorial 4/4: Basic

Formatting

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Formatting data Data types The first worksheet in the Tutorial 4 workbook is the unformatted Swimming Pool Project worksheet from the

Calculations & Functions tutorial (Tutorial 3 of 4). Click to that worksheet in the Tutorial 4_Formatting.xlsx file.

Before we begin, let’s resize the first column so that all of the words in column A are visible.

Slowly move the cursor in between the letters of column A and column B until the cursor changes to a black

cross.

With the black cross visible, double click to resize column A to the widest contents in that column. Now all of the

words are visible.

This table needs formatting!

We should never include a

table that looks like this in a

final policy

brief/memo/report.

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The information in this worksheet represents many types of information. There are dollar values, some of which

are negative numbers, and a cell with a percentage. In each case, the unformatted numbers do not convey the

type of information they represent and they are all very difficult to read!

We can tell Excel how to format each of these cells so that the information becomes much more useful.

First, we will format all of the dollar values, the expenses and revenues.

On the Home tab, look for the Number section on the ribbon.

Click the dropdown box arrow next to the word General. These are some of the many format options for cell

contents. General is usually the default type. Notice that there are number formats (currency, accounting,

percentage, fraction) and others (short date, long date, time). Not pictured here is the Text format that does

not apply any decimal or symbol ($) to the information in that cell.

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Let’s try formatting these dollar amounts as Currency and see how it looks.

Go back to the worksheet data by clicking outside the Number formatting list.

Click to select all of the expenses and revenues in cells B4 though G11. (Do not select the discounted values at

this point, because we do not wish to change the discount rate in cell B14 to a Currency format).

With these cells selected, click the Number dropdown box again and select Currency. The format of all of these

cells will change to look like this:

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This is quite an improvement! The expenses and revenues have comma separators which make the large

numbers easier to read. The dollar sign symbol has been added along with two decimal places for cents.

However, the expenses, still have negative signs which might be missed by a reader who is not looking carefully

at this worksheet. Formatting the negative numbers to appear in parentheses, (#), will make the negatives

more explicit. There are two ways to do this.

One way is to keep the Currency formatting but manually specify the treatment of negative numbers.

Select the revenue and expense cells between B4 and G11 again.

Somewhere in the selected areas, right click and choose Format Cells. This window will appear:

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Notice that Currency is highlighted as the category, based on the selection we made earlier.

In the Negative numbers window, choose either of the two treatments that use parentheses. In this context,

since the costs are expected, it may make sense to use the black font, rather than the red font.

Click the third option, ($1,234.10). Click OK.

The cell formatting changes only for the negative numbers in the worksheet. Now the formatting makes the

differences between expenses and revenues very clear.

The second possibility for changing the negative numbers from negative signs to parenthesis is to use a different

cell format.

Select the data between B4 and B11 for the third time.

In the Number section of the Home tab, click the dropdown box next to Currency. Select Accounting.

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The format changes to look like this:

This Accounting format is slightly different from the Currency format. The dollar symbols are left justified and

the numbers are right justified. The negative numbers appear in parentheses, without manually specifying that

treatment.

Let’s stick with the Accounting format. Practice cell formatting by selecting the discounted revenues and

expenses (cells B15 through G18) and changing them to the Accounting format. After the change, the worksheet

should look like this:

Now cell B14, the discount rate, is the only cell that has not been formatted. Click cell B14.

In the Number section of the Home tab, click the dropdown box next to Number. Select Percentage.

The cell formatting should change to appear as a percentage, but this should not change any of the formulas

that link to that cell.

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More formatting … worksheet appearance. The data on this worksheet is much easier to read and accurately represents the type of information contained

in each cell. Still, there are a few other things we could do to make this ready for a policy brief/memo/report.

Formatting the title and bottom line to appear more visible would be a start.

Let’s merge cells to make the table title stretch across the whole width of the table.

Select the cells beginning with A1 and ending in G1. In the Alignment section of the Home tab, click the Merge

& Center button. This will make one cell that stretches from one end of the data area to the other.

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After clicking the Merge & Center button, your worksheet should look like this:

Now, let’s make the text more visible by making the text bold and adding cell shading to the new title cell.

Click the new wide cell. In the Font section of the Home tab, click the B to make the text bold.

We should also change the color of the cell.

After clicking bold, while the cell is still selected, click the dropdown arrow next to the paint can on that same

Font section.

Choose one of the colors by clicking it. I am choosing a swimming pool blue…

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The title should now be in bold font on a blue cell background, like this:

Now this table has a nice heading, but a busy reader might like the bottom line, the discounted project profit

and the net present value, to be highlighted. Practice formatting by selecting cells B18 through F18 and making

them a light gray.

Select cell G18, the net present value (perhaps the most important piece of info in this table) and changing the

background to black. At this point, the worksheet should look like this:

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Clearly, this will not do! The net present value in G18 is no longer visible. This is because the number was in

black font and we just changed the cell background to black. We need to change the font color in this cell.

Select cell G18. In that same Font section of the Home tab, click the dropdown box next to the large letter A

with a solid black underline.

Choose the white font by clicking it. Now make the contents of cell G18 bold.

Compare the now fully formatted worksheet (above) to the initial worksheet (below).

This unformatted

information is not only

difficult to read, it is

uninteresting! The

formatted table is a big

improvement.

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Still more formatting … data and worksheet appearance Now let’s turn to the second worksheet in this workbook, Red Winged Blackbirds. Click the worksheet name to

open that worksheet.

This is an unformatted table that was created in Tutorial 3 of 4: Statistical Analysis. (Note: You do not have to

have completed that tutorial to benefit from the formatting skills of this tutorial.)

Like the Swimming Pool Project worksheet, this worksheet contains a lot of unformatted information that is

difficult to read. We can improve this worksheet by formatting the columns, rows, and cells.

Start by resizing all of the columns. You can do this by hovering the cursor between each column letter

(between A and B, for instance) and double clicking once the black cross appears. This approach would be very

time consuming.

Instead, click the blank gray square above row 1 to the left of column A. This highlights the entire worksheet.

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With all of the worksheet contents selected, hover the cursor between columns A and B. When the black cross

appears, double click. This will simultaneously resize ALL of the columns to the widest contents. The new

worksheet should look like this:

Next, let’s remove the “Column1” headings by deleting cell contents and remove the blank row 2 by deleting

a row. One at a time, click each of the three cells (A1, C1, E1) and press the delete key to remove the contents.

Click the 2, indicating row 2, to select that entire row. Right click and select Delete. Now the table looks like this:

Columns C and E are repeating information and should be deleted.

To select both of these columns at the same time, hover the cursor over the letter indicating column C until it

changes to a black down arrow. Click to select the entire column, and then press the Control key on the

keyboard.

\/ \/ \/

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While holding the Control key, Click the letter E to select the entire column E. Both C and E should be selected.

With both columns selected, right click over one of the selection areas and select Delete. Both columns will

disappear:

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Now let’s focus on the cells with too many visible decimal places. These decimal places are not conveying useful

information. We should preserve one or two and hide the rest.

Click cell B2 to select it. While holding the Control key on the keyboard, click cell C2 and D2 to select them. This

is one way to select more than one cell to reformat simultaneously.

While the three cells are selected, click the decrease decimals button in the Number section of the Home tab.

Click this button only once.

Sometimes clicking this only once will reduce all of the decimals to two but sometimes it is necessary to click the

reduce decimal button repeatedly until the number of desired decimals is visible.

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Using the Control key on the keyboard, practice selecting individual cells by clicking B3, C3, and D3. While they

are selected, reduce their decimals down to two using the same button on the Numbers section of the Home

tab.

Now, using the cursor, select a larger group, all of the cells from B6 through D9. Reduce their decimals to two as

well. Do the same for the contents of cells B15, C15 and D15.

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The table should look like this:

This table is looking better but now it needs a title row. We should insert a new row above row 1.

Click the 1 indicating row 1 to select the entire row. Right click and select Insert.

A blank row will appear before Row 1 and the worksheets contents are all shifted down one row.

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Select cells A1, B1, C1, D1 and click the Merge and Center button like we did in the Swimming Pool Project

formatting above. Now there is one long blank cell in row 1 that spans columns A through D.

Click this cell and type a title. Use, “Descriptive Statistics for the Red Winged Blackbird Study”

Right click that new title cell and change the formatting color like we did with the Swimming Pool Project table.

For obvious reasons, I am selecting a red background. I also changed the font to white and made it bold.

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The final formatted worksheet should look like this.

The formatted worksheet above is an incredible improvement over the unformatted worksheet below.

\/ \/ \/

This

unformatted

information is

not only

difficult to read,

it is

uninteresting!

The formatted

table is a big

improvement.

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Guess What? More formatting. For our last few lessons in formatting, let’s turn to the third worksheet, Botswana Decade.

Notice in this table, the Year column title is centered, but the data in that column is not. We need to center the

data in column A to match the title.

Hover the cursor over the A in column 1 until it turns to a down black arrow. Click once to select the entire

column

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With the column selected, Find the center alignment button in the Alignment section of the Home tab. Click

twice to center the text title and the years.

Now the table looks like this:

\/ \/ \/

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Now, practice some of the formatting skills you have learned by adding a title row. Complete these tasks:

Insert a row above row 1

Merge cells A1 and B1 to create a wide blank title row

Type “Botswana GDP” in this new cell.

Make the new table title appear in bold font

Change the column B title from “Botswana” to “GDP”

Unbold the font for the two column titles, “Year” and “GDP” by clicking the B in the Font section to

unselect it

The new table should look like this:

The Red Winged Blackbird descriptive statistics table looked very nice with the lines above and below the title

row and at the bottom of the table. Let’s add some cell and table borders to this table.

Click to select the Botswana GDP title cell.

With the cell selected, click the dropdown arrow next to the custom borders button on the Font section of the

Home tab.

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Select the option with the Top and Bottom Border by clicking it.

Now the table has a line above and below Row 1, like this:

Next, select cells A12 and B12. Click the custom borders button again. This time, choose Bottom Border (the

first option). The bottom of the table will be outlined like this:

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This table is ready to copy and paste into a policy brief/memo/report. Select the entire table (but not the

entire worksheet) like this:

Right click and select Copy or press Ctrl+C

Open a blank Microsoft Word document. Right click but instead of selecting paste, select the picture with the

Sun and Mountains. This option pastes the table as an image, so that all of the formatting we did is preserved.

This image can be resized like any other image, but if it is made too large or too small, it may appear grainy.

\/ \/ \/

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Inserting a basic graph Let’s assume we want a line graph showing Botswana’s GDP over the past 10 years.

Click to select the data, including the column titles.

On the Insert tab, in the Charts section, click the dropdown arrow under the Scatter option.

Select the first option in the second column, Scatter with Smooth Lines and Markers. A graph will appear.

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The title of this graph is not very descriptive. Let’s change it.

Click the bold GDP title at the top of the new graph.

A box will appear around the word. Click within the box, in front of the letter G to insert the cursor.

Type “Botswana” so the title looks like this:

With only one line and an adequately descriptive title, there is no need for the key in the right of the graph.

To delete this element, click on the key to select it. Click the Delete key on the keyboard.

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With the key deleted, the graph is automatically resized to fill the blank space. The graph looks like this:

Note that the x-axis stretches from 2006 to 2018, but our data only goes to 2016. We should format the axis so

that future years do not appear.

Click over the x-axis to select it. Right click and choose Format axis.

In the Axis Options, beside Maximum, click Fixed and type 2016 in the box. This specifies 2016 as the highest

value on the x-axis. Click Close.

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Now the graph looks like this,

Finally, all of the y-axis values are in billions of dollars. Abbreviating these will reduce the size of the graph and

make it more visually appealing.

Click over the y-axis to select it. Right click and choose Format Axis, like we did to modify the x-axis.

In the Display Units section, click the dropdown box. Select Billions.

Notice that the checkbox underneath, Show display units label on chart, is automatically checked with the

Billions selection. Click Close.

The appearance of the y-axis is much improved.

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For more information about formatting in Excel, refer to the Microsoft Online Support Materials.

Ways to format a worksheet

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Ways-to-format-a-worksheet-d5efbdb5-b79b-475a-8c56-

99aad944b030?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US

Format an Excel table

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Format-an-Excel-table-6789619f-c889-495c-99c2-2f971c0e2370

Format your chart

https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Format-your-chart-a5a3422b-ea15-4cce-8599-4531ffa62bbb

Created 8-3-2017