Formatting fonts and text styles. Navigating a Spreadsheet

an article added by: Barbara Futo at 06042007


In: Categories » » Microsoft office » Formatting fonts and text styles. Navigating a Spreadsheet

Different fonts can emphasize parts of your spreadsheet, such as using one font to label columns and rows and another font or font size to display the actual data. Text styles (bold, underline, and italic) can also emphasize data that appears in the same font or font size. To change the font, font size, and text style of one or more cells, follow these steps:

1. Select the cell or cells that you want to change the font and font size.

2. Click the Home tab.

3. Click the Font list box. A pull-down menu of different fonts appears.

4. Click the font you want to use.

5. Choose one of the following methods to change the font size:

• Click the Font Size list box and then choose a font size, such as 12 or 16.

• Click the Font Size list box and type a value such as 7 or 15.

• Click the Increase Font Size or Decrease Font Size icon until your data appears in the size you want.

6. Click one or more text style icons (Bold, Italic, Underline).

Formatting with color

Each cell displays data in a Font color and a Fill color. The Font color defines the color of the numbers and letters that appear inside a cell. (The default Font color is black.) The Fill color defines the color that fills the background of the cell. (The default Fill color is white.) To change the Font and Fill colors of cells, follow these steps:

1. Select the cell or cells that you want to color.

2. Click the Home tab.

3. Click the downward-pointing arrow that appears to the right of the

Font Color icon. A color palette appears.

4. Click the color you want to use for your text. The color you select appears directly on the Font Color icon. The next time you want to apply this same color to a cell, you can click the Font Color icon directly instead of the downward-pointing arrow to the right of the Font Color icon.

5. Click the downward-pointing arrow that appears to the right of the

Fill Color icon. A color palette appears.

6. Click a color to use to fill the background of your cell. The color you select appears directly on the Fill Color icon. The next time you want to apply this same color to a cell, you can click the Fill Color icon directly instead of the downward-pointing arrow to the right of the Fill Color icon.

Adding borders

For another way to highlight one or more cells, you can add borders. Borders can surround the entire cell or just the top, bottom, left, or right side of a cell. To add borders to a cell, follow these steps:

1. Select one or more cells.

2. Click the Home tab.

3. Click the downward-pointing arrow to the right of the Border icon. A pull-down menu appears.

4. Click a border style.

Navigating a Spreadsheet

If you have a large spreadsheet, chances are good that information may be hidden by the limitations of your computer screen. To help you view and select cells in different parts of your spreadsheet, Excel offers various ways to navigate a spreadsheet using the mouse and keyboard.

Using the mouse to move around in a spreadsheet

To navigate a spreadsheet with the mouse, you can click the scroll bars or use the scroll wheel on your mouse, if you have one. To use the scroll bars, you have three choices:

 Click the up/down or right/left arrows on the horizontal or vertical scroll bars.

This moves the spreadsheet one row (up or down) or column (right or left) at a time.

 Drag the scroll box of a scroll bar.  Click the scroll area (any area to the left/right or above/below the scroll box on the scroll bar).

This moves the spreadsheet one screen left/right or up/down. If your mouse has a scroll wheel, you can use this wheel to move through a spreadsheet by two methods:  Roll the mouse’s scroll wheel up or down to scroll your spreadsheet up or down.  Press the scroll wheel to display a four-way pointing arrow, then move the mouse up, down, right, or left. (When you’re done, click the scroll wheel again.)

Using the keyboard to move around a spreadsheet

Using the mouse can be faster to jump from one place in a spreadsheet to another, but sometimes using the mouse can be frustrating, trying to line it up just right. For that reason, you can also use the keyboard to move around a spreadsheet. If you know the specific cell you want to move to, you can jump to that cell by using the Go To command. To use the Go To command, follow these steps:

1. Click the Home tab.

2. Click the Find & Select icon in the Editing group. A pull-down menu appears.

3. Click Go To. The Go To dialog box appears. You can also choose the Go To command by pressing Ctrl+G.

4. Click in the Reference text box and type the cell you want to move to, such as C13 or F4.

5. Click OK.

Naming cells

One problem with the Go To command is that most people won’t know which cell contains the data they want to find. For example, if you want to view the cell that contains your total amount of money you owe for your income taxes, you probably don’t want to memorize that this cell is G68. To help you identify certain cells, Excel lets you give them descriptive names. To name a cell or range of cells, follow these steps:

1. Select the cell or cells that you want to name.

2. Click in the Name box.

3. Type a descriptive name without any spaces and then press Enter. After you name a cell, you can jump to it quickly by following these steps:

1. Click the downward-pointing arrow to the right of the Name box. A list of named cells appears.

2. Click the named cell you want to view. Excel displays your chosen cell. Eventually, you may want to edit or delete a name for your cells. To delete or edit a name, follow these steps:

1. Click the Formulas tab.

2. Click the Name Manager icon.

3. Edit or delete the named cell as follows:

• To edit the name, click the cell name you want to edit and then click the Edit button. An Edit Name dialog box appears, where you can change the name or the cell reference.

• To delete the name, click the cell name you want to delete and then click the Delete button.

4. Click Close.

Searching a Spreadsheet

Rather than search for a specific cell, you may want to search for a particular label or number in a spreadsheet. Excel lets you search for the following:

    Specific text or numbers
    All cells that contain formulas
    All cells that contain conditional formatting
 Searching for text

You can search for a specific label or number anywhere in your spreadsheet. To search for text or numbers, follow these steps:

1. Click the Home tab.

2. Click the Find & Select icon in the Editing group. A pull-down menu appears.

3. Click Find.

The Find and Replace dialog box appears. If you click the Replace tab, you can define the text or number to find and new text or numbers to replace it.

4. Click in the Find What text box and type the text or number you want to find.

If you click the Options button, the Find and Replace dialog box expands to provide additional options for searching, such as searching in the displayed sheet or the entire workbook.

5. Click one of the following:

Find Next: Finds and selects the first cell, starting from the currently selected cell that contains the text you typed in Step 4

Find All: Finds and lists all cells that contain the text you typed in Step 4.

6. Click Close to make the Find and Replace dialog box go away.

Searching for formulas

Formulas appear just like numbers; to help you find which cells contain formulas, Excel gives you two choices:

 Display formulas in your cells (instead of numbers)

 Highlight the cells that contain formulas

To display formulas in a spreadsheet, press Ctrl+` (an accent grave character, which appears on the same key as the ~ sign and often appears to the left of the number 1 key near the top of a keyboard). To highlight all cells that contain formulas, follow these steps:

1. Click the Home tab.

2. Click the Find & Select icon in the Editing group. A pull-down menu appears.

3. Click Formulas. Excel highlights all the cells that contain formulas.

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