MS Excel 2007 - Lesson 15: Format the text

Once you have entered the information into a spreadsheet in Excel 2007, you will need to know how to format it. In this lesson, you'll learn how to use bold commands (bold), italic (italics) and underline (underline); modify font style, size and color; as well as apply border and fill color.

Format text in bold or italics

1. Left-click a cell to select or move the cursor over the text in the formula bar to select it.
2. Click the Bold or Italics command .

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You can select all columns and rows or specific cells. To select the entire column, just left click on the column heading and the entire column will be selected. To select specific cells, just left-click on a cell and hold down and drag over to select other cells, then release the mouse button.

Format text as underlined

1. Select the cell or cells you want to format.
2. Click the drop-down arrow next to the Underline command .
3. Select the option Single Underline or Double Underline .

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Change font style

1. Select the cell or cells you want to format.
2. Left-click the drop-down arrow next to the Font Style box on the Home tab .
3. Select the font style from the list.

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When you scroll through the font list, the Live Preview feature allows you to preview the font in the spreadsheet.

Change the font size

1. Select the cell or cells you want to format.
2. Left-click the drop-down arrow next to the Font Size box on the Home tab .
3. Select font size from the list.

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Change the text color

1. Select the cell or cells you want to format.
2. Left-click the drop-down arrow next to the Text Color command . A color palette will appear.
3. Choose a color from the palette.

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Or:

1. Select More Colors. A dialog box will appear.
2. Choose a color.
3. Click OK.

Add borders (border)

1. Select the cell or cells you want to format.
2. Click the drop-down arrow next to the Borders command on the Home tab . A menu will appear with border options.

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1. Left click on an option from the list to select it.

You can change the style and color of the border.

Color

1. Select the cell or cells you want to format.
2. Click the Fill command . A color palette will appear.
3. Choose a color.

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Or:

1. Select More Colors. A dialog box will appear.
2. Choose a color.
3. Click OK.

You can use the coloring feature to format columns and rows or format sheets to make them easier to read.

Format numbers and dates

1. Select the cell or cells you want to format.
2. Left-click the drop-down arrow next to the Number Format box .
3. Choose one of the options to format the number.

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By default, numbers appear in the General category , meaning there is no special format.

In the Number group, you have several other options. For example, you can change the US dollar symbol to another currency format, convert the percentage number, add commas and change the decimal position.

Practice!

Use the workbook Budget or any Excel workbook you choose to complete this challenge.

1. Select a cell, then format the text or number in the box so that they appear in bold format.
2. Select two or more cells and format text or numbers so they appear in italic format.
3. Change the color of two or more cells.
4. Add a border to the row.

>> Previous lesson: MS Excel 2007 - Lesson 10: Modifying columns, rows and cells