Formatting and printing

Formatting makes a sheet easy to read.

Numbers (Format Cells > Number): currency signs, commas, decimal places, percentages, dates and special formats. Negative numbers can show in red. Comma Style and Increase/Decrease Decimal adjust the display quickly.

Text and cells: fonts and sizes, borders, fill colours, alignment and text direction. Save a look as a cell style. Format Painter copies formatting from one cell to others. AutoFormat applies one of 17 ready-made styles.

Conditional formatting changes a cell's look only when a condition is true, for example red when a value is below zero. Its tools are colour scales, data bars and icon sets; they make exceptions, trends and high or low performers jump out.

Merge and Centre joins neighbouring cells into one, whose address is the upper-left cell. Splitting them puts the contents back in the upper-left cell. Format as Table applies Light, Medium or Dark table styles.

Printing: a header prints at the top of every page and a footer at the bottom (set them in Page Layout view). A print area limits what prints and is saved with the file. You can print a selection, several ranges, whole sheets or a workbook; always check Print Preview first.