MS-Excel / General Formatting

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Learn About Templates Style

From the format menu, select style to display the style dialog box.
Styles are sets of information about how a spreadsheet is formatted. A collection of cell formatting information is often referred to as a style. If formatting information is assigned to cells using styles it is possible to easily update the appearance of a sheet by modifying the styles. Change one style and all cells that have that style assigned to them will reflect the changes made.

The information held in a style includes the:

1. Number
2. Alignment
3. Font
4. Border
5. Patterns
6. Protection

You have the choice when defining styles to exclude any of the above as you wish. Excel comes with a number of styles pre-defined, by default all cells have the normal style assigned to them. It is possible to copy style from one Workbook to another.

Creating and Using Styles

Type the style name in the Style name drop-down list.

Create style:
Select a cell formatted with the attributes you require. From the format menu, select style to display the style dialog box, type the style name in the style name drop down list, select the modify button to change any of the attributes. The format cells dialog box will be displayed. Click on the number, alignment, font, border, patterns and protection tabs and make any changes required. Select ok to return to the style dialog box and select ok.



Use style:
Select the range you wish to format, from the format many, select style to display the style dialog box, select the style from the style name drop down list box and in the end select ok.

Edit style:
From the format many, select style to display the style dialog box, select the style you want to change from the style name drop down list box, click the modify button. Make the changes required by clicking on the various tabs and choose ok to return to the style dialog box, select ok. All the cells which are formatted with this style will be updated to reflect the changes.

Controlling Styles with Templates

When you start Excel, it loads with several default settings, including the settings for stylistic formatting. If you spend a lot of time changing the default elements, you should know about templates. Here's an example. You may prefer to use 10-point Calibri rather than 11-point Calibri as the default font. And maybe you prefer Wrap Text to be the default setting for alignment. Templates provide an easy way to change defaults.

The trick is to create a workbook with the Normal style modified to the way that you want it. Then, save the workbook as a template in your XLStart folder. After doing so, you click on File and New to display a dialog box from which you can choose the template for the new workbook. Template files also can store other named styles, providing you with an excellent way to give your workbooks a consistent look.