Creating and Applying Styles

A style is a defined collection of formats ”font, font size, attributes, numeric formats, and so on ”that you can store as a set and later apply to other cells . For example if you always want subtotals to display in blue 14-point Times New Roman, bold, italic, with two decimal places and commas, you can create a style that includes all these formats. If you plan to enter repetitive information, such as a list of dollar amounts in a row or column, it's often easier to apply the desired style to the range before you enter the data. That way you can simple enter each number, and Excel formats it as soon as you press Enter. You can also copy styles from one workbook to another. Once you create a style, it is available to you in every workbook.

Create a New Style

Select a cell or range that you want to create a style.

Click the Format menu, and then click Style.

Type the name of the new style.

Clear the check boxes with the options you do not want.

Click Modify.

Click any of the formatting tabs, and then make additional formatting changes to the style.

Click OK.

Click OK.

Did You Know?

You can merge a style from another workbook . Click the Format menu, click Style, click Merge, click the workbook that contains the style you want, click OK, and then click OK again.

Apply a Style

Select a cell or range to which you want to apply a style.

Click the Format menu, and then click Style.

Click the Style Name list arrow, and then select the style you want to apply.

Click OK.