Formatting Cells: Fonts, Borders & Colors¶

Formatting turns a wall of numbers into something readable. It changes how data looks, never what it is.

A clean, well-formatted financial report on screen

The Home Tab Essentials¶

Group	What it does
Font	Typeface, size, bold, italic, color
Alignment	Left/center/right, wrap text, merge
Number	Currency, %, date, decimals
Styles	Cell styles, conditional formatting, tables

A Clean Header Row¶

A professional table starts with a clear header:

| Region | Sales  | Growth |   ← bold, filled background, white text
| North  | 12,500 |  8%    |
| South  |  9,800 | -3%    |

Steps:

1.Select the header cells.
2.Bold them (CtrlB).
3.Apply a fill color (Home → Fill Color).
4.Set font color to white for contrast.
5.Add a bottom border to separate from the data.

Borders & Gridlines¶

Note

Gridlines are the faint screen guides — they don't print by default. Borders are real, deliberate lines you add and that do print. Use borders for anything you'll share or print.

Format Painter — Copy a Look¶

Format the first cell perfectly, then:

1.Click it.
2.Click Format Painter (the paintbrush) on the Home tab.
3."Paint" over other cells to copy the formatting.

Double-click the paintbrush to keep it active for multiple targets.

Tip

Press [[Ctrl+1]] to open the full Format Cells dialog — every formatting option in one place.