1.4 Cell Formatting

Excel provides various ways to format cells as currency, percentages, numbers, dates, and so forth. The image below shows three ways to format cells in Excel. In the top left example, you simply select the cell that you would like to format and then click the dropdown menu in the Number menu in the ribbon. The options shown in the image will be available to you. Simply click on the option that best fits the data type you would like that cell to have, and you're done. In this example, since the principal amount of the loan is highlighted, you would likely select the Currency option from the dropdown menu.

The top right image below shows an even quicker way to format cells, but the options are more limited. Notice the dollar sign, percentage symbol and comma in the Number section of the command ribbon. By clicking on the cell you want to format, in this example cell C3, and then clicking the appropriate formatting style, in this case the percentage symbol, the format will change in the cell from 0.05 to 5%.

The final way shown below to format cells is by using the Format Cells dialog box. To use this approach, click in the cell you want to format and then right click and select the Format Cells option. The dialog box shown below will then appear. Click on the various options on the left hand side of the dialog box to format the cell in the most appropriate format for the situation. In this case, the Principal Amount is highlighted, so Currency is the most likely to be selected as the formatting style for this cell.