How to Format Cell Numbers in Excel

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:

• Excel Book
• Microsoft Excel

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

2. Select the cells you want to format.

3. Open the Format menu and select Cells.

4. Click the Number tab.

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. 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.