1.4 Formatting Cells
Formatting changes how a cell looks, not its value.
Steps in Excel
- Font, fill, borders: Home › Font group (Bold Ctrl + B, Fill Color, Borders).
- Alignment: Home › Alignment – Wrap Text, Merge & Center, orientation, indent.
- Center Across Selection (better than Merge): select A1:F1 › Ctrl + 1 › Alignment tab › Horizontal › Center Across Selection.
- Cell Styles: Home › Styles › Cell Styles (Heading 1, Good, Bad, Neutral…).
- Format Painter: Home › Clipboard › Format Painter. Double-click it to paint many places; press Esc to stop.
- Clear formats only: Home › Editing › Clear › Clear Formats.
- Column width: double-click the boundary between column headers to AutoFit.
Worked example. Zoya formats the daily report header of the Hadapsar store: row 1 title "Blinkit Hadapsar – Daily Sales" in 14 pt bold, centred across A1:H1; header row 3 with dark green fill, white bold text and a bottom border; amounts right-aligned; AutoFit all columns.
Ravindra Bagale's Tip
Many students use Merge & Center for headings, and then sort, copy-paste and filter give errors. For a title, use Center Across Selection – it looks the same, but the cells are not merged. Never merge cells inside a data table.
Ravindra Bagale's Tip – मराठी
बरेच students heading साठी Merge & Center वापरतात, आणि मग sort, copy-paste आणि filter ला error येतो. Title साठी Center Across Selection वापरा – दिसायला तसंच, पण cells merge होत नाहीत. Data च्या table मध्ये तर merge अजिबात करू नका.
Ravindra Bagale's Tip – हिंदी
बहुत से students heading के लिए Merge & Center लगाते हैं, और फिर sort, copy-paste और filter में error आता है. Title के लिए Center Across Selection इस्तेमाल करो – दिखता वैसा ही है, पर cells merge नहीं होते. Data की table में तो merge बिल्कुल मत करो.
Practice task
Format your Orders sheet: bold header with fill colour, AutoFit widths, Center Across Selection for a title row, and apply the Heading 1 cell style to the title.