Office 2007 - Excel

Lesson 16: Formatting Cells

16/83 Lessons 

Setting Height and Width
It happens frequently that we can not fully read the information in some columns.
One reason for this may be that data has been inserted in the adjacent column.

If this is the case with numbers, we see, all cardinal signs (#).


To avoid this, we need to adjust the column width.
This can be done in different ways.
One is to place the mouse pointer between two columns in the column titles, when it changes into a cross with two arrows, click and drag it to the desired width.

A second way, and I think the fastest way, is to place the mouse pointer between two columns in the column titles, when it changes into a cross with two arrows, double click.
This will automatically adjust the width of the column to the cell with the highest cell contents.

A third way is to click on the command “Format” in the “Ribbon” and select “Column Width”.

In the dialog that appears, you specify the column width in pixels.
Click OK.

If you want to adjust width of multiple columns first select all the columns that you want to adjust the width and then perform one of the above actions.

The same is true for the rows.
Place the pointer between two rows and double click.

Hide and Show Columns and rows
To hide columns and rows first select it, right click it and choose Hide from the drop-down menu.
To make it visible select the two columns between which the hidden column is located, right-click and choose “Unhide”.

The dividing line between the columns where the hidden columns are located, is shown thick.
We do the same to hide or unhide rows. First select the rows, right click and make your choice from the drop-down menu

Formatting numbers using the “Ribbon”
There are many ways to format numbers in Excel.
Several of these formatting options are found in the “Number” group in the “Home” tab of the “Ribbon”.


To apply formatting, first select the cell or cell range.
The field at the top of the”Number” group, shows the formatting that is currently applied.


By default it is set to “General”.
When we click the black arrow pointing down we get a list that we can use.

Under each format there is an example of how our formatting will look like.

The difference between the “Accounting” and “Currency” formatting is the first is left-aligned, and the second is right aligned.

To apply formatting select your choice in the list.

Click on the downward arrow next to the  button.
Choose “Accounting Number Format” and select “More Accounting formats …” displays a dialog box from which we can choose our currency.


The % button displays numerical values as a percentage.
The 000 button gives thousands.
The third and fourth button increases and reduced the number of decimal places.

We can use percentage with decimal places.

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