To save you time with formatting, Excel provides preset formatting that you can apply to a table to give it an overall look. And to save you the effort of applying many different types of formatting over and over again to different cells, Excel includes styles—collections of formatting you can apply all at once.
When you need to format a table quickly, see if Excel's preset table formatting will do the trick. Select the table, choose Tables
Table Styles
Table Styles
, and then click the style you want.
NOTE: See Chapter 10 for instructions on creating and working with Excel tables.
As you've seen earlier in this chapter, you can give any cell exactly the formatting you want by using the controls in the Font group, Alignment group, and Number group of the Home tab of the Ribbon, by using the controls on the Formatting toolbar, or by opening the Format Cells dialog box and working on its six tabs. But applying formatting one aspect at a time—font, font size, alignment, and so on—is slow work, and it's easy to apply formatting inconsistently.
To save time and ensure your formatting is consistent, you can use Excel's styles. Each style is a collection of formatting that you can apply to one or more cells. The style contains six types of formatting, one for each tab of the Format Cells dialog box:
Most Excel templates contain plenty of styles to get you started, but you can create your own custom styles as well if you need to.
To see which styles are available in a workbook, choose Home
Format
Styles
and look at the Cell Styles panel (see Figure 4–22). This panel lists the styles in the following categories:
Figure 4–22. The Styles panel displays your custom styles at the top and Excel's built-in styles in different categories.
NOTE: The Hyperlink style appears in the Data and Model category in the Styles panel only if the workbook contains hyperlinks. Similarly, the Followed Hyperlink style appears only if the workbook contains hyperlinks you've followed.
To apply a style, choose Home
Format
Styles
, and then click the style on the Styles panel. You can also apply the various Number styles (such as the Currency styles, the Percent style, and the Comma style) from the Number group on the Home tab of the Ribbon.
If none of Excel's styles meets your needs, you can create your own. To create a style, follow these steps:
TIP: To jump-start your formatting, apply the existing style that's nearest to the look and formatting you want. Then change the formatting so it looks the way you want.
Home
Format
Styles
New Cell Style
to display the New Cell Style dialog box (shown in Figure 4–23 with settings chosen).
Figure 4–23. In the New Cell Style dialog box, you can quickly create a new style based on the formatting of the selected cell. You can change the formatting as needed by clicking the Format button and working in the Format Cells dialog box.
NOTE: If you need to alter the formatting, click the Format button to display the Format Cells dialog box. Make the changes needed, and then click the OK button to return to the New Cell Style dialog box.
TIP: Instead of creating a new style, you can modify one of the built-in styles. Choose Home
Format
Styles
to display the Styles panel, Ctrl+click or right-click the style you want to change, then click the Modify item on the context menu. In the Modify Cell Style dialog box, select or clear the check boxes in the “The selected style has formatting for the following properties” area or click the Format button to display the Format Cells dialog box, and make the changes you need. When you have finished, click the OK button to return to the Modify Cell Style dialog box, then click the OK button.
If you have styles in one workbook that you want to use in another workbook, you can copy the styles across. Excel calls this importing styles. When you import the styles, the destination workbook receives all the styles from the source workbook—you can't pick and choose (but see the nearby Tip).
To import the styles, follow these steps:
Home
Format
Styles
Import Cell Styles
to display the Import Cell Styles dialog box (see Figure 4–24).
Figure 4–24. Use the Import Cell Styles dialog box to copy all the styles from one workbook into another workbook.
TIP: If you need to copy just one style from one workbook to another, apply that style to a cell in the source workbook. Then copy that cell and switch back to the destination workbook. Ctrl+click or right-click a cell you don't mind changing, and then click Paste Special to display the Paste Special dialog box. In the Paste area, select the Formats option button, and then click the OK button. Excel pastes the style onto the cell, and you can then use the style in the workbook.
If you no longer need a style, you can delete it. Choose Home
Format
Styles
, Ctrl+click or right-click the style in the Cell Styles panel, and then click Delete on |the context menu.
NOTE: Excel prevents you from deleting the Normal style, because it uses this style for any cell that doesn't have another style applied.
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