Formatting Cells

Excel provides a wide range of formatting for both the contents of cells and their appearance so that the cells show exactly the data you want, in the right format, and with the appropriate emphasis. You can apply most cell formatting using the keyboard.

Shortcuts for Formatting Cells

Display the Style dialog box

[Alt] - [']

Display the Format Cells dialog box

[Ctrl] - [1]

This shortcut works only with the 1 key in the key row, not the 1 key on the keypad.

Apply the General format

[Ctrl] - [Shift] - [~]

Apply the two-decimal-place Currency format

[Ctrl] - [Shift] - [$]

Apply the Percentage format (no decimal places)

[Ctrl] - [Shift] - [%]

Apply the Exponential format with two decimal places

[Ctrl] - [Shift] - [^]

Apply the DD-MMM-YY date format

[Ctrl] - [Shift] - [#]

Apply the HH:MM AM/PM time format

[Ctrl] - [Shift] - [@]

Apply the two-decimal-place number format with the thousands separator

[Ctrl] - [Shift] - [!]

Toggle strikethrough

[Ctrl] - [5]

Applying Borders

Excel includes two shortcuts for applying and removing an outline border by using the keyboard.

Apply an outline border

[Ctrl] - [Shift] - [ & ]

Remove the outline border

[Ctrl] - [Shift] - [_]

For more complex borders, press [Ctrl] - [1] , and then use the Borders tab of the Format Cells dialog box (Figure 5-1). This tab is largely graphical, but you can also manipulate its border controls by using [Alt] -based keyboard shortcuts. Unlike most dialog box shortcuts, these shortcuts aren t marked with underscores, so most people don t know about them.

Figure 5-1: You can use [Alt] -based shortcuts to manipulate the border controls on the Border tab of the Format Cells dialog box.

Toggle the top border on the selected cells

[Alt] - [T]

Toggle the bottom border on the selected cells

[Alt] - [B]

Toggle the left border on the selected cells

[Alt] - [L]

Toggle the right border on the selected cells

[Alt] - [R]

Toggle the downward diagonal border on the selected cells

[Alt] - [D]

Toggle the upward diagonal border on the selected cells

[Alt] - [U]

Toggle the horizontal border on the selected cells

[Alt] - [H]

Toggle the vertical border on the selected cells

[Alt] - [V]

You can also use the access keys that are displayed on the Borders tab: [Alt] - [N] to apply the None preset, [Alt] - [O] to apply the Outline preset, [Alt] - [I] to apply the Inside preset (to a multicell selection only), and so on.