How to Format Text in an Excel Spreadsheet
Microsoft Excel's formatting capabilities are similar to its other Office counterparts, such as Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. No matter the type of data you have---a database of numbers or a complex chart---Excel will let you customize the text however you like. Simply highlight the text you need to format and make modifications to font style, font size, text attributes (such as a bold or underline format) and text color.
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Instructions
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Open a workbook in Microsoft Excel.
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Select the text you want to format. To format text in a range of cells at the same time, click the top cell in the range and drag your cursor down to the last cell in the range. If it's a large range of cells, click the top cell and press "Shift" while clicking the last cell in the range.
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Click the "Home" tab. In the Font group, click the small triangle in the bottom corner, which the in the Format Cell Font dialog box launcher. The keyboard shortcut for the dialog box is "Ctrl" + "1."
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Select a font from the Font box. You'll see a preview of each font as you select it.
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Select a font style.
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Select a font size. You also may use the "Increase Font Size" and "Decrease Font Size" buttons in the Font group on the Home tab.
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Make a selection from the Underline field if you want to underline the data. Use this field to apply a different style of underline other than the single line, which you can access from the Home tab.
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Click a checkbox under the "Effects" box to apply a strikethrough, superscript or subscript to the text.
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Select a color for the text.
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Click the "Alignment" tab on the dialog box. Make a selection in the Horizontal and Vertical fields. For instance, choose to right-align the text in a cell by selecting "Right (Indent)" in the Horizontal field.
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Tips & Warnings
All the shortcuts to the text formatting options in the dialog box are available on the Home tab, including font customization and alignment.
References
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