Formatting Characters

In the Normal template, which is the one applied when you create a new workbook, the default font is Arial and the font size is 10 points.

Just like Word, PowerPoint, and FrontPage, Excel displays various fonts on the Formatting toolbar and provides a fast way to change the font. You can select a font from the Font box on the Formatting toolbar. Change the style (bold, italic, and underline), and font size from the Formatting toolbar. For example, when typing the contents of a cell, if you click the Formatting toolbar's Bold button (press Ctrl+B), the rest of what you type in the cell will appear in bold.

To make better use of your time, this chapter does not go into great character-formatting detail. In case you jumped to this part of the book that covers Excel without reading earlier chapters, you should review Chapter 6, "Formatting Characters, Paragraphs, and Pages," to see how to apply formatting to cell contents. The same character formats apply to your cells as text in Word documents.

In the following steps, you change the font, font style, and font size for the title in the My Budget workbook that you've created over the past few chapters. You'll also change the font style for the column headings. If the My Budget file isn't open right now, open it before you begin the exercise.

1. Select cell A1.

2. Click the Font down arrow on the Formatting toolbar.

3. Scroll down the list until you see Courier New and then click it.

4. Click the Font Size down arrow on the Formatting toolbar.

5. Scroll down the list until you see 16. Click it.

6. Click the Bold button on the Formatting toolbar.

7. Select cells B3:M3.

8. Click the Bold button on the Formatting toolbar.

9. Click the Italic button on the Formatting toolbar.

10. Click any cell to deselect the range. Figure 46.5 shows what your formatted text should look like.

    Figure 46.5. Font, font size, and font style changes.