How to Format Numbers?
One of Excel’s powerful features is applying specific formatting to numbers. Formatting allows you to vary the look of dates, times, decimals, percentages, currency ($), and much more rather than presenting all cell information similarly.
Step 1: Select the cells
Select cells to apply formatting.
Step 2: Click the dropdown menu in the “Number” group
Click the dropdown menu in the “Number” group to choose a number format.
Step 3: Select the Number format
Choose from the available choices (Date, Time, Currency, Percentage, etc.) by scrolling down the page.
Step 4: The selected formatting will be applied
Once you’ve chosen a formatting option, it will be applied to the selected cells.
Excel: Formatting Cells
Excel Formatting Shortcuts
If you have closely followed the previous parts of this tutorial, you already know most of the Excel formatting shortcuts. The table below provides a summary.
Shortcut Format
Ctrl+Shift+~ General format
Ctrl+Shift+! Number format with a thousand separators and two decimal places.
Ctrl+Shift+$ Currency format with two decimal places and negative numbers displayed in parentheses
Ctrl+Shift+% Percentage format with no decimal places
Ctrl+Shift+^ Scientific notation format with two decimal places
Ctrl+Shift+# Date format (dd-mmm-yy)
Ctrl+Shift+@ Time format (hh: mm AM/PM)
Excel opens with all the cells looking the same. Things can get hard to understand if you have a lot of them. Changing Excel’s look is as simple as changing the font and size parameters to modify the appearance of your written work. The key points become more apparent, and the material becomes more accessible.
Excel also lets you choose whether the numbers are money ($) or percentages (%). Then, it will know just what to display to them. After these easy changes, your Excel file will look better and be easier for everyone to understand.