Using Different Formatting In The Same Cell In Microsoft Excel

When changing the appearance of text within an Excel worksheet, you have the choice of working on the entire cell or at the text level. To work at the cell level you simply highlight one or more cells and choose your formats. The formats that you choose will then apply to all text within the cell or cells.

For example, if you wish to change the font size of your data in Microsoft Excel, you can of course use the drop-down menu next to the font name and choose one of the preset sizes. Another method of changing the size is to use the Grow Fond and Shrink Font buttons located on the right of the font size. These two buttons simply use the same preset sizes available on the preset size drop-down. Having activated the font size text box, you can also use the cursor keys on your keyboard to move through different sizes. Yet another method is to enter a particular size then press the enter key. When you do so, you are permitted to enter decimals, such as 10.5.

In a similar way, when you wish to choose a font, you can highlight the current name and begin to type the name of font you have in mind, for example Times new Roman. Once you have typed enough of the name to avoid ambiguity, the font name will be displayed and you simply press the Enter key.

Colour can be applied in two ways in your worksheets either as a background to the cell or to the text inside the cell. Because background colour applies to the cell it can’t be applied at the text level. With the advent of Themes in Excel 2007, Microsoft have made it very easy to come up with colour combinations which look good together.

To work at the text level, you need to go into Edit mode. You can enter Edit mode in a couple of ways: the first is to double-click on any cell; the second is to click once on the cell and then click anywhere in the formula bar. You will know when you’re in Edit mode by the appearance of the Cancel and Enter buttons on the left of the formula bar.

When working in Edit mode, you can highlight individual characters and change their attributes. For example, if a cell contains the text “Google”, you could highlight each letter individually and change it to the colour used in the Google logo.

This facility of having different formats within the same cell is very useful for headings. It is not so useful for the rest of the data in your worksheets since it slows down data entry and makes editing difficult.


by Carol Alexander:
The author is a trainer and developer with Macresource Computer Solutions, a UK IT training company offering Microsoft Excel 2007 Classes in London and throughout the UK.