Part I: Getting Started with Excel
FIGURE 5.4
You can choose many different font formatting options for your worksheets.If you prefer to keep both hands on the keyboard, you can use the following shortcut keys
to format a selected range quickly:■ (^) Ctrl+B: Bold
■ (^) Ctrl+I: Italic
■ (^) Ctrl+U: Underline
■ (^) Ctrl+5: Strikethrough
These shortcut keys act as a toggle. For example, you can turn bold on and off by repeat-
edly pressing Ctrl+B.
Using Multiple Formatting Styles in a Single Cell
If a cell contains text (as opposed to a value or a formula), you can apply formatting to individual char-
acters in the cell. To do so, switch to Edit mode (press F2, or double-click the cell) and then select the
characters that you want to format. You can select characters either by dragging the mouse over them
or by pressing the Shift key as you press the left or right arrow key.
This technique is useful if you need to apply superscript or subscript formatting to a few characters in
the cell (refer to Figure 5.4 for examples).
After you select the characters to format, use any of the standard formatting techniques, including
options in the Format Cells dialog box. To display the Format Cells dialog box when editing a cell,
press Ctrl+1. The changes apply only to the selected characters in the cell. This technique doesn’t
work with cells that contain values or formulas.
Changing text alignment
The contents of a cell can be aligned horizontally and vertically. By default, Excel aligns
numbers to the right and text to the left. All cells use bottom alignment by default.