Formating cells in Excel

Data entered in excel shows differently on your worksheet depending upon the cell format used by you.


January 19, 2009 which is stored by system as 39832 can shown as 19-01-2009 or 19-Jan-2009 or
19-Jan-09. There are many combination that can be achieved by changing the cell format for the cell containing that value.


Similarly you can add currency sign such as Rs / $ / £ / ¥ , it can be any sign of your choice.

Not only this you can actually add color codes the numbers depending upon the value.


You can choose all these options from Format Cell Menu. You need to choose Number tab than category as per requirement of the format.

Most tricky / dynamic category is Custom format at the end of the list. How to use this in more productive way will be covered in later posts on the specific subjects like custom formating dates, custom formating numbers etc in excel.