How to Create 3D Formatting In Microsoft Excel

By using the border and shading features of Microsoft Excel, you can apply 3D effects to a single cell or group of cells. This is a feature that might be used by someone with advanced Excel skills who's creating a form, or who likes to add fancy formatting to their worksheets. Note: Click the images to enlarge them for easier viewing.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Create or open a Microsoft Excel workbook in which you want to use 3D formatting on the cells.

2. In the example shown in the Introduction above, the gridlines have been turned off and the cells have been filled with a brown color. You do not have to color the whole worksheet, nor do you have to use the same fill color for all the cells on which you are applying 3D effects.

3. To create the 3D effect that looks like a SUNKEN button, right click in the cell you want to format, and then click on Format Cells.

4. 
    
   Sunken Border

   Click on the Border tab. Under Style, choose a thin, solid line (a), choose a color darker for the line than the cell fill color (b), and then apply the dark line style color to the (c) left and top border of the cell.
   
   Repeat for the bottom and right borders, only replace the dark color choice with a color much lighter than the cell fill color.
   
   Click OK

5. To create the 3D effect that looks like a RAISED button, right click in the cell you want to format, and then click on Format Cells.

6. 
    
   Raised Border

   Click on the Border tab. Reverse the process in Step 4 and place the light borders on the top and left; darker borders on the bottom and right.
   
   Click OK.

7. You can experiment with different thickness of lines to create a higher or shallower 3D effect.