Excel 2019 Bible

117

C H A P T E R

5

Formatting Worksheets

IN THIS CHAPTER

Understanding how formatting can improve your worksheets

Getting to know the formatting tools

Using formatting in your worksheets

Using conditional formatting

Using named styles for easier formatting

Understanding document themes

F

ormatting your worksheet is more than just making your worksheet pretty. Proper formatting can

help users understand the purpose of the worksheet and help prevent data entry errors.

Stylistic formatting isn’t essential for every workbook that you develop, especially if it’s only for

your own use. On the other hand, it takes only a few moments to apply some simple formatting and,

after you apply it, the formatting will remain in place without further effort on your part.

Getting to Know the Formatting Tools

Figure 5.1 shows how even simple formatting can significantly improve a worksheet’s readability.

The unformatted worksheet (on the left) is perfectly functional but not very readable compared to

the formatted worksheet (on the right).

This workbook is available on this book’s website at http://www.wiley.com/go/excel2019bible. The

file is named loan payments.xlsx.

The Excel cell formatting tools are available in three locations.

■ (^) On the Home tab of the Ribbon
■ (^) On the Mini toolbar that appears when you right-click a selected range or a cell
■ (^) From the Format Cells dialog box
Excel® 2019 Bible, First Edition. Michael Alexander, Dick Kusleika and John Walkenbach.
© 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2019 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.