How To

How to Format Cell Numbers in Excel

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By eHow Contributing Writer
(4 Ratings)

You can change your Microsoft Excel numerical data to currency, dates, text and other formats. The following steps work with Excel 97.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Instructions

Things You'll Need:

  1. Step 1

    Open Microsoft Excel, then open the file you want to change.

  2. Step 2

    Select the cells you want to format.

  3. Step 3

    Open the Format menu and select Cells.

  4. Step 4

    Click the Number tab.

  5. Step 5

    Select a format type from the Category list. For example, for items in a budget, select Currency or Accounting. (A description of the selected format is displayed in the Format box to help you out.)

  6. Step 6

    Click OK to accept the changes.

Tips & Warnings
  • To create a custom number format, click Custom in the list of formats, then enter codes to describe the format you want. (See Excel's online help for a description of number format codes.)
  • The Accounting format lines up decimal points and currency symbols in a column.

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