Applying Basic Font & Alignment Formatting in Excel

Applying Basic Font and Alignment Formatting in Excel

Formatting the text and numbers on your worksheets is more than just decoration. In addition to making your worksheets look more professional and polished, formatting can help visually separate key sections of your worksheet and draw attention to important information.

As shown on this worksheet, shading and borders draw attention to section headings and separate those sections, and bolding draws attention to totals. Let me zoom out slightly so that the whole sheet fits onscreen.

Now, here’s the same exact data on another worksheet with no such formatting applied. Not only is it kind of boring to look at, it’s harder to spot totals and you have to stop and read more carefully to see where each section begins and ends.

So let’s take this very dull worksheet and make it pop a bit. Everything we need is on the Home tab, in the Font and Alignment sections of the ribbon.

First, let’s format the title. I’ll select the cell that contains it, and I’ll increase the font size by clicking the big A button. Notice the row height automatically adjusts to match this. I can also select a specific size using the Font Size drop list. If I make the font too big, I can choose a different size or click the little A button, also known as the Decrease Font Size button.

Next, I’ll click the B for Bold button on the ribbon, right there in the Font group of tools. The title really stands out now.

Now, with the cell still selected, I’ll apply a colored fill to the cell with the Fill Color button and resulting palette.

Next, I’ll make the title span the whole area containing data, and select all of the cells to its right, through the last column containing data. When I click the Merge & Center button, found here in the Alignment section, the formatting is extended through all of the selected cells and they’re all merged into a single cell with the title centered within it.

I’m also going to use the Alignment tools once more – to center the Sales by Division title both horizontally and vertically in its row – it looks odd sitting in the lower left corner of the cell, and this solves that problem. I’ll also Bold the words and increase the font size slightly.

Next, let’s indent the city names in each division. I’ll select the names in the US, and click the Increase Indent button once. And I’ll repeat that for Europe and Asia, too.

Note that if I click the Increase Indent button too many times, I can use the Decrease Indent button to fix that.

Now, at this point, we need to make the sections of the worksheet stand out from each other.

To do this, I’ll bold the content for each of the section titles in Columns B & I and the column headings in row 4.

Next, I’ll select cells around and between the sections, using the Ctrl key to add them to a single selection.

Once they’re all selected, I can apply a Fill color to all of them. This helps visually separate the sections, making quick and accurate viewing of the worksheet easier.

Now, let’s draw attention to the totals in row 12 – by bolding them, placing borders on and a fill color in their cells to make them stand out.

So with with that strip of totals selected, I’ll click the Bold button on the Home tab.

And now, reselecting to include the heading in column B, I’ll put a top border on the cells and then I’ll apply shading – a different color than I used to frame the sections – to the cells, too.

Now, to apply all 3 formats to the other horizontal totals, I’ll click the Format Painter – see the button stays selected – it’s on the Home tab, in the Clipboard group – and then all I have to do is drag through one of the other section totals. Notice that the formatting was applied, based on the selected cells, and Format Painter is off now.

Here’s a tip – if you want to paint formatting to more than one other selection, double-click the Format Painter button. Then it stays on and lets you paint through all the other selections you want to before you turn it off manually by pressing Esc or re-clicking the Format Painter once.

Let’s not leave out the vertical totals – I’ll select the first section’s totals in column G and then I’ll apply the same Bold and shading that I applied to the horizontal totals, and I’ll put a left-side border on the cells.

Now I can use the Format Painter more than once by double-clicking it.

With the Format Painter on, I can drag through the other 2 sections vertical totals and the formatting is carried forward, everywhere I click and drag.

Then I press Esc, and the Format Painter is off.

Note that the top border applied to row 12’s totals and title were not applied to the European and Asian cells in column G. This is due to the order in which the formatting was applied, so they weren’t applied with the Format Painter on this last round. But I can easily add them manually, clicking in each cell and adding a top border.

Last thing I’ll do is make a few more changes to that merged title cell.

I’m going to give it a darker fill color and turn the text white, using the Font Color button and the resulting palette.

And finally, while most people stick with the simple fonts – Arial, Calibri – for worksheet content, which is wise when it comes to the data, using a different font in a main title like this can be a nice touch.

With the cell selected, I’ll click the Font drop list and view my choices. I want something a little fancier than the main font used throughout the worksheet, but not too ornate. How about Cambria? It’s already bold, so it really stands out now.

Excel’s formatting tools make it easy to apply quick, simple touches to your worksheets, making all your hard work look even more reliable and valuable – because you took the time to apply a professional appearance.