115
CHAPTER
Worksheet
Formatting
IN THIS CHAPTER
Understanding how formatting
can improve your worksheetsGetting to Know the Formatting Tools ..............................................................................
Using formatting in your
worksheetsUsing named styles for easier
formattingUnderstanding document
themesF
ormatting your worksheet is like the icing on a cake — it may not be
absolutely necessary, but it can make the end product a lot more
attractive. In an Excel worksheet, formatting can also make it easier
for others to understand the worksheet’s purpose.
Stylistic formatting isn’t essential for every workbook that you develop —
especially if it is for your own use only. 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.
In Chapter 5, I show how easy it is to apply formatting to a table. The infor-
mation in this chapter applies to normal ranges. I show you how to work
with the Excel formatting tools: fonts; colors; and styles, such as bold and
italic. I also cover custom styles that you can create to make formatting large
amounts of material in a similar way easier.
Getting to Know the
Formatting Tools
Figure 6.1 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 with the formatted worksheet (on
the right).
On the CD
This workbook is available on the companion CD-ROM. The file is named
loan payments.xlsx.