MORE INFORMATION
There are six tabs in the
Format Cells dialog box:
Number,
Alignment,
Font,
Border,
Patterns, and
Protection. The following sections describe the settings available in each tab.
Number tab
Auto number formatting
By default, all worksheet cells are formatted with the General number format. With the General format, anything you type into the cell is usually left as-is. For example, if you type
35064 into a cell and then press ENTER, the cell contents are displayed as 35064. This is because the cell remains in the General number format. However, if you first format the cell as a date (for example, d/d/yyyy) and then type the number
35064, the cell displays 1/1/2000.
There are also other situations where Excel for Mac leaves the number format as General, but the cell contents are not displayed exactly as they were typed. For example, if you have a narrow column and you type a long string of digits like
123456789, the cell might instead display something like 1.2E+08. If you check the number format in this situation, it remains as General.
Finally, there are scenarios where Excel for Mac may automatically change the number format from General to something else, based on the characters that you typed into the cell. This feature saves you from having to manually make the easily recognized number format changes. The following table outlines a few examples where this can occur:
Excel automatically assigns
If you type this number format
-------------------------------------------
1.0 General
1.123 General
1.1% Percentage, 2 decimal places
1.1E+2 Scientific, 2 decimal places
1 1/2 Fraction, up to one digit (1/4)
$1.11 Currency, 2 decimal places
1/1/01 Date
1:10 Time
Generally speaking, Excel for Mac applies automatic number formatting whenever you type the following types of data into a cell:
- Currency
- Percentage
- Date
- Time
- Fraction
- Scientific
Built-in number formats
Excel for Mac has a large array of built-in number formats from which you can choose. To use one of these formats, click any one of the categories below
General and then select the option that you want for that format. When you select a format from the list, Excel for Mac automatically displays an example of the output in the
Sample box on the
Number tab. For example, if you type
1.23 in the cell and you select
Number in the category list, with three decimal places, the number 1.230 is displayed in the cell.
These built-in number formats actually use a predefined combination of the symbols listed below in the "Custom Number Formats" section. However, the underlying custom number format is transparent to you.
The following table lists all of the available built-in number formats:
Number format Notes
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Number Options include: the number of decimal places,
whether or not the thousands separator is used, and
the format to be used for negative numbers.
Currency Options include: the number of decimal places,
the symbol used for the currency, and
the format to be used for negative numbers. This
format is used for general monetary values.
Accounting Options include: the number of decimal places, and
the symbol used for the currency. This format lines
up the currency symbols and decimal points in a
column of data.
Date Select the style of the date from the Type list box.
Time Select the style of the time from the Type list box.
Percentage Multiplies the existing cell value by 100 and
displays the result with a percent symbol. If you
format the cell first and then type the number, only
numbers between 0 and 1 are multiplied by 100.
The only option is the number of decimal places.
Fraction Select the style of the fraction from the Type list
box. If you do not format the cell as a fraction
before typing the value, you may have to type a
zero or space before the fractional part. For
example, if the cell is formatted as General and you
type 1/4 in the cell, Excel treats this as a
date. To type it as a fraction, type 0 1/4 in the
cell.
Scientific The only option is the number of decimal places.
Text Cells formatted as text will treat anything typed
into the cell as text, including numbers.
Special Select one of the following from the Type box: Zip
Code, Zip Code + 4, Phone Number, and Social Security
Number.
Custom number formats
If one of the built-in number formats does not display the data in the format that you require, you can create your own custom number format. You can create these custom number formats by modifying the built-in formats or by combining the formatting symbols into your own combination.
Before you create your own custom number format, you need to be aware of a few simple rules governing the syntax for number formats:
To create a custom number format, click
Custom in the
Category list on the
Number tab in the
Format Cells dialog box. Then, type your custom number format in the
Type box.
The following table outlines the different symbols available for use in custom number formats.
Format Symbol Description/result
------------------------------------------------------------------------
0 Digit placeholder. For example, if you type 8.9 and
you want it to display as 8.90, then use the
format #.00
# Digit placeholder. Follows the same rules as the 0
symbol except Excel for Mac does not display extra zeros
when the number you type has fewer digits on either
side of the decimal than there are # symbols in the
format. For example, if the custom format is #.## and
you type 8.9 in the cell, the number 8.9 is
displayed.
? Digit placeholder. Follows the same rules as the 0
symbol except Excel for Mac places a space for insignificant
zeros on either side of the decimal point so that
decimal points are aligned in the column. For
example, the custom format 0.0? aligns the decimal
points for the numbers 8.9 and 88.99 in a column.
. (period) Decimal point.
% Percentage. If you enter a number between 0 and 1,
and you use the custom format 0%, Excel for Mac multiplies
the number by 100 and adds the % symbol in the cell.
, (comma) Thousands separator. Excel for Mac separates thousands by
commas if the format contains a comma surrounded by
'#'s or '0's. A comma following a placeholder
scales the number by a thousand. For example, if the
format is #.0,, and you type 12,200,000 in the cell,
the number 12.2 is displayed.
E- E+ e- e+ Scientific format. Excel for Mac displays a number to the
right of the "E" symbol that corresponds to the
number of places the decimal point was moved. For
example, if the format is 0.00E+00 and you type
12,200,000 in the cell, the number 1.22E+07 is
displayed. If you change the number format to #0.0E+0
the number 12.2E+6 is displayed.
$-+/():space Displays the symbol. If you want to display a
character that is different than one of these
symbols, precede the character with a backslash (\)
or enclose the character in quotation marks (" ").
For example, if the number format is (000) and you
type 12 in the cell, the number (012) is displayed.
\ Display the next character in the format. Excel for Mac does
not display the backslash. For example, if the number
format is 0\! and you type 3 in the cell, the value
3! is displayed.
* Repeat the next character in the format enough times
to fill the column to its current width. You cannot
have more than one asterisk in one section of the
format. For example, if the number format is 0*x and
you type 3 in the cell, the value 3xxxxxx is
displayed. Note, the number of "x" characters
displayed in the cell vary based on the width of the
column.
_ (underline) Skip the width of the next character. This is useful
for lining up negative and positive values in
different cells of the same column. For example, the
number format _(0.0_);(0.0) align the numbers
2.3 and -4.5 in the column even though the negative
number has parentheses around it.
"text" Display whatever text is inside the quotation marks.
For example, the format 0.00 "dollars" displays
"1.23 dollars" (without quotation marks) when you
type 1.23 into the cell.
@ Text placeholder. If there is text typed in the
cell, the text from the cell is placed in the format
where the @ symbol appears. For example, if the
number format is "Bob "@" Smith" (including
quotation marks) and you type "John" (without
quotation marks) in the cell, the value
"Bob John Smith" (without quotation marks) is
displayed.
DATE FORMATS
m Display the month as a number without a leading zero.
mm Display the month as a number with a leading zero
when appropriate.
mmm Display the month as an abbreviation (Jan-Dec).
mmmm Display the month as a full name (January-December).
d Display the day as a number without a leading zero.
dd Display the day as a number with a leading zero
when appropriate.
ddd Display the day as an abbreviation (Sun-Sat).
dddd Display the day as a full name (Sunday-Saturday).
yy Display the year as a two-digit number.
yyyy Display the year as a four-digit number.
TIME FORMATS
h Display the hour as a number without a leading zero.
[h] Elapsed time, in hours. If you are working with a
formula that returns a time where the number of hours
exceeds 24, use a number format similar to
[h]:mm:ss.
hh Display the hour as a number with a leading zero when
appropriate. If the format contains AM or PM, then
the hour is based on the 12-hour clock. Otherwise,
the hour is based on the 24-hour clock.
m Display the minute as a number without a leading
zero.
[m] Elapsed time, in minutes. If you are working with a
formula that returns a time where the number of
minutes exceeds 60, use a number format similar to
[mm]:ss.
mm Display the minute as a number with a leading zero
when appropriate. The m or mm must appear immediately
after the h or hh symbol, or Excel for Mac displays the
month rather than the minute.
s Display the second as a number without a leading
zero.
[s] Elapsed time, in seconds. If you are working with a
formula that returns a time where the number of
seconds exceeds 60, use a number format similar to
[ss].
ss Display the second as a number with a leading zero
when appropriate.
NOTE: If you want to display fractions of a second,
use a number format similar to h:mm:ss.00.
AM/PM Display the hour using a 12-hour clock. Excel for Mac am/pm
am/pm displays AM or A for times from midnight A/P until noon,
A/P and PM or P for times from noon a/p until midnight.
a/p
NOTE: Only capitals are created.
Displayed value versus stored value
Excel for Mac displays a number according to the format of the cell that contains it. Therefore, the number that you see in the cell may differ from the number stored by Excel for Mac and from the number used in calculations that refer to the cell. For example, if you type
1.2345 in a cell where you only want two digits to the right of the decimal to be displayed, the cell displays the value 1.23. Note however, if you use that cell in a calculation, the full four digits to the right of the decimal are used.
For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
181918
Number formatting affects perceived precision in Excel for Mac
Alignment tab
You can position text and numbers, change the orientation and specify text control in cells by using the
Alignment tab in the
Format Cells dialog box.
Text alignment
Under
Text alignment, you control the horizontal, vertical alignment and indention. The following is a list of available settings for text alignment:
Group Setting Description
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Horizontal General Text data is left-aligned, and numbers,
dates, and times are right-aligned.
Changing the alignment does not change
the type of data.
Left (Indent) Aligns contents at the left edge of the cell.
If you specify a number in the Indent box, Microsoft
Excel indents the contents of the cell from the left
by the specified number of character spaces.
The character spaces are based on the standard
font and font size selected on the General tab of
the Preferences dialog box (Edit menu in Excel 2001
or Excel menu in Excel X and 2004).
Center Centers the text in the selected cells.
Right Aligns contents at the right edge of the
cell.
Fill Repeats the contents of the selected cell
until the cell is full. If blank cells to
the right also have the Fill alignment,
they are filled as well.
Justify Aligns wrapped text within a cell to the
right and left. You must have more than
one line of wrapped text to see the
justification.
Center Across Centers a cell entry across the selected
Selection cells.
Vertical Top Aligns cell contents along the top of the
cell.
Center Centers cell contents in the middle of the
cell from top to bottom.
Bottom Aligns cell contents along the bottom of
the cell.
Justify Justifies the cell contents up and down
within the width of the cell.
Text control
There are some additional miscellaneous text alignment controls in the
Text Control section of the
Alignment tab. These controls are
Wrap Text,
Shrink to Fit and
Merge Cells.
Select
Wrap Text to wrap the text in the selected cell. The number of wrapped lines depends on the width of the column and the length of the cell contents.
Note To start a new line that uses the
Wrap Text option, press CONTROL+OPTION+RETURN while typing in the formula bar. This drops the insertion point to a new line and turns on
Wrap Text in the active cell.
Selecting the
Shrink to Fit option decreases the font size of the text in a cell until all the contents of the cell can be displayed. This feature is helpful when you want to avoid changing the column width for the entire column. The applied font size is not changed.
The
Merge Cells option combines two or more selected cells into a single cell. A "merged cell" is a single cell created by combining two or more selected cells. The cell reference for a merged cell is the upper-left cell in the original selected range.
Orientation
You can set the amount of text rotation in the selected cell by using the
Orientation section. Use a positive number in the
Degree box to rotate the selected text from lower left to upper right in the cell. Use negative degrees to rotate text from upper left to lower right in the selected cell.
To display text vertically from top to bottom, click the vertical
Text box under
Orientation. This gives a stacked appearance to text, numbers and formulas in the cell.
Font tab
The term
font refers to a typeface (for example, Arial), along with its attributes (point size, font style, underlining, color, and effects). Use the
Font tab in the
Format Cells dialog box to control these settings. You can see a preview of your settings by reviewing the
Preview section of the dialog box.
Note You can use this same
Font tab to format individual characters. To do this, select the characters in the formula bar and click
Cells on the
Format menu.
Typeface, Font Style, and Size
The
Font option on the
Font tab allows you to choose a typeface. You choose your typeface for the selected cell by clicking a name in the
Font list or typing a name in the
Font box.
After you select a typeface in the
Font list, the
Size list displays the available point sizes. Keep in mind that each point is 1/72 of an inch.
Typeface Styles
The list of choices in the
Font Style list varies depending on the font that is selected in the
Font list. Most fonts include the following styles:
- Regular
- Italic
- Bold
- Bold italic
Underline
In the
Underline list, you can select an underlining option to format the selected text. The following table describes each underlining option:
Underline type Description
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
None No underlining is applied.
Single A single underline is placed under each character
in the cell. The underline is drawn through the
descenders of characters like "g" and "p."
Double Double underlines are placed under each character
in the cell. The underlines are drawn through the
descenders of characters like "g" and "p."
Single Accounting A single underline is placed under each character
in the cell. The underline is drawn below the
descenders of characters like "g" and "p."
Double Accounting Double underlines are placed under each character
in the cell. The underlines are drawn through the
descenders of characters like "g" and "p."Color, effects, and normal font settings
Choose a color for the font by clicking a color in the
Color list. You can rest the mouse over a color to see a ToolTip with the color name. The
Automatic color is always black.
Select the
Normal font check box to set the font, font style, size, and effects to the Normal style. This is essentially resetting the cell formatting to defaults.
Select the
Strikethrough check box to draw a line through selected text or numbers. Select the
Superscript check box to format the selected text or numbers as superscripts (above). Select the
Subscript check box to format the selected text or numbers as subscripts (below). You typically want to use subscripts and superscripts for individual characters in a cell. To do this, select the characters in the formula bar and click
Cells on the
Format menu.
Note Formatting individual characters only works with text or numbers that are formatted as text or numbers that are formatted as text.
Border tab
In Excel, you can put a border around a single cell or a range of cells. You can also have a line drawn from the upper-left corner of the cell to the lower-right corner, or from the lower-left corner of the cell to the upper-right corner.
You can customize these cells' borders from their default settings by changing the line style, line thickness or line color.
The following settings are available on the
Border tab of the
Format Cells dialog box:
Group Setting Description
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Presets None Turns off all borders that are currently
applied to the selected cell(s).
Outline Places a border on all four sides of a
single cell or around a selected group of
cells.
Inside Places a border on all interior sides of
a group of selected cells. This button is
unavailable (dimmed) if a single cell is
selected.
Border Top Applies a border with the currently
selected style and color to the top of the
cell(s) in the selected region.
Inside Horizontal Applies a border with the currently
selected style and color to all horizontal
sides in the interior of the currently
selected group of cells. This button is
unavailable (dimmed) if a single cell is
selected.
Bottom Applies a border with the currently
selected style and color to the bottom of
the cell(s) in the selected region.
Diagonal (bottom- Applies a border with the currently
left to upper- selected style and color from the bottom-
right) left corner to the upper-right corner for
all cells in the selection.
Left Applies a border with the currently
selected style and color to the left side
of the cell(s) in the selected region.
Inside Vertical Applies a border with the currently
selected style and color to all vertical
sides in the interior of the currently
selected group of cells. This button is
unavailable (dimmed) if a single cell is
selected.
Right Applies a border with the currently
selected style and color to the right
side of the cell(s) in the selected
region.
Diagonal (upper- Applies a border with the currently
left to bottom- selected style and color from the upper-
right) left corner to the lower-right corner for
all cells in the selection.
Line Style Applies the selected line style to the
border. Choose from dotted, dashed, solid
and double border lines.
Color Applies the specified color to the border.
Applying borders
To add a border to a single cell or a range of cells, follow these steps:
- Select the cells that you want to format.
- On the Format menu, click Cells.
- In the Format Cells dialog box, click the Border tab.
Note Some buttons on the Border tab are unavailable (dimmed) when you only have a single cell selected. This is because these settings are only applicable when you apply borders to a range of cells. - Select any one of the line styles in the Style list.
- Click the Color drop-down arrow and select any one of the colors.
- Click any one of buttons listed under Presets or Border.
This displays a line with your settings in the sample region. - If you want to remove a specific border, click the button for that border a second time.
- If you want to change the line color or style, click the style or color that you want, and then click the button for the border again.
Patterns tab
Use the
Patterns tab in the
Format Cells dialog box to set the background color of the selected cells. You can also use the
Pattern list to apply two-color patterns or shading for the background of the cell.
Note The color palette on the
Patterns tab is the same color palette from the
Color tab of the
Preferences dialog box (
Edit menu in Excel 2001 or
Excel menu in Excel X and in Excel 2004).
To shade cells with patterns, follow these steps:
- Select the cells to which you want to apply shading.
- On the Format menu, click Cells, and then click the Patterns tab.
- To include a background color with the pattern, click a color in the Cell shading box.
- Click the arrow next to the Pattern box, and then click the pattern style and color that you want.
If you do not select a pattern color, the pattern is black.
You can return the background color formatting for the selected cells to their default state by clicking
No Color.
Protection tab
The
Protection tab offers you two options for protecting your worksheet data and formulas:
However, neither of these two options takes effect unless you also protect your worksheet. To protect a worksheet, point to
Protection on the
Tools menu, click
Protect Sheet, and then select the
Contents check box.
Locked
By default, all cells in a worksheet have the
Locked option turned on. When this option is turned on (and the worksheet is protected), you cannot do the following:
- Change the cell data or formulas.
- Type data in an empty cell.
- Move the cell.
- Resize the cell.
- Delete the cell or its contents.
Note If you want to be able to type data in some cells after protecting the worksheet, make sure to clear the
Locked check box for those cells.
Hidden
By default, all cells in a worksheet have the
Hidden option turned off. If you turn on this option (and the worksheet is protected) the formula, text, or value in a cell does not appear in the formula bar. However, you do see the results of the formula in the cell.