Formatting Shortcuts in Excel are essential for anyone looking to enhance their spreadsheet skills and efficiency. By mastering these shortcuts, you can dramatically reduce the time spent on formatting tasks, allowing you to focus more on data analysis and interpretation. These shortcuts enable you to quickly apply styles, adjust layouts, and modify the appearance of your data with just a few keystrokes. Embrace the full range of Formatting Shortcuts in Excel to transform your spreadsheets into well-organized, visually appealing documents that clearly convey your message.
This Tutorial Covers:
- Applying Bold Font Formatting to Headers
- Apply or remove italic format
- Apply or remove the underline format
- Applying Border to the Selected Range
- Applying OUTLINE Border to the Selected Range
- Autofit Column Width
- Fill color
- Opening Format Cells Dialogue Box
- Apply general format
- Apply currency format
- Apply percent format
- Apply scientific format
- Apply date format
- Apply time format
- Apply number format
- Apply or remove strike format
- Select the entire row
- Delete a column
- Delete a row
- Select the entire column
1. Powerful Excel Formatting Shortcuts
We frequently download large amounts of unformatted data from databases or files shared by colleagues that look unattractive and raw.
Excel formatting shortcuts can be used to apply some basic formatting so that it can be used further.
Here are some useful Formatting shortcuts in Excel described below.
- Applying Bold Font Formatting to Headers:
When you wish to accentuate a header by making the typeface bold, this formatting shortcut is useful.
Use the keyboard shortcut shown below:
Control + B (hold the Control key and then press B)
- Apply or remove italic format:
When you wish to accentuate a header by making the typeface italic, this formatting shortcut is useful.
Use the keyboard shortcut shown below:
Control + I (hold the Control key and then press I)
- Apply or remove underline format:
When you give the data an underline to indicate especially, this formatting shortcut is useful.
Use the keyboard shortcut shown below:
Control + U (hold the Control key and then press U)
- Applying Border to the Selected Range:
When you give the data/report a border, you’ll be pleasantly amazed at how much nicer it looks. With this straightforward formatting, the data is changed from a raw data dump to something that resembles a polished report.
To add the border to the chosen data set, use the keyboard shortcut:
ALT + H + B + A (press the ALT key followed by H and B and A)
- Applying OUTLINE Border to the Selected Range:
If a worksheet contains numerous tables or sections, you might wish to apply a thick outline border to demarcate the various portions.
You might, for instance, want to split the data for several regions within the same dataset.
The selected range of cells gets a thick outline border when you use the following keyboard shortcut.
ALT + B + H + T (press the ALT key followed by H and B and T)
Use the keyboard shortcuts ALT HBA and ALT HBT in sequence to apply a border to all of the cells and have the thick border serve as the outline (and not the other way around).
- Autofit Column Width:
When you copy and paste data into Excel, it can be annoying to watch the text or data leave the cells. This occurs when a cell’s text or data requires more room than the available column width.
The following keyboard shortcut will automatically adjust the content so that the column width will adapt to fit the contents.
CTRL + H + O + W (hit the ALT key, then the keys H, O, and W)
By using this shortcut, the column width will be adjusted to fit the cell with the most text.
- Fill color:
To add color to your cell or a range of cells, press the following shortcut key:
Alt + H + H ((hit the ALT key, then the keys H, and H)
- Opening Format Cells Dialogue Box:
Although this shortcut would format your data in any way, it will open the Format Cells dialog box, which gives you access to a wealth of useful formatting options
To open the “Format Cells” dialog box, press the following shortcut key:
Control + 1 (hold the control key and then press 1)
So, from now on, whenever you receive a raw data dump, all you have to do is utilize these easy Excel formatting shortcuts, and you’ll instantly have more polished and appealing data.
- Apply general format:
To apply general format to your data or value, press the following shortcut key:
Ctrl + Shift + ~ (hold the Control key, Shift key and then press ~ symbol)
- Apply currency format:
To apply currency format to your data or number, press the following shortcut key:
Ctrl + Shift + $ (hold the Control key, Shift key and then press $ symbol)
- Apply percent format:
To apply the percent format to your data or number, press the following shortcut key:
Ctrl + Shift + % (hold the Control key, Shift key, and then press % symbol)
- Apply scientific format:
To apply the scientific format to your data or value, press the following shortcut key:
Ctrl + Shift + ^ (hold the Control key, Shift key and then press ^ symbol)
- Apply date format:
To apply the date format to your data or value, press the following shortcut key:
Ctrl + Shift + # (hold the Control key, Shift key and then press # symbol)
- Apply time format:
To apply time format to your data or value, press the following shortcut key:
Ctrl + Shift + @ (hold the Control key, Shift key and then press @ symbol)
- Apply number format:
To apply number format to your data or value, press the following shortcut key:
Ctrl + Shift + ! (hold the Control key, Shift key and then press ! symbol)
- Apply or remove strike format:
In Excel, you may use the strikethrough feature to delete text or numbers or draw a line through a cell or a portion of a cell.
Using a built-in keyboard shortcut, strikethrough can be applied to a cell:
Ctrl + 5 (hold the Control key and then press 5)
- Select the entire row:
To select the entire row in your spreadsheet, press the following shortcut key:
Shift + Space (hold the Shift key and then press space)
- Select the entire column:
To select the entire column in your spreadsheet, press the following shortcut key:
Control + Space (hold the control key and then press space)
- Delete a column:
To delete a column in your spreadsheet, press the following shortcut key:
Alt+H+D+C (press the ALT key followed by H and D and C)
- Delete a row:
To delete a row in your spreadsheet, press the following shortcut key:
Shift + Space, Ctrl – (hold the Shift key and then press space. After that hold the control key and then press – to delete a row).
Application of Formatting Shortcuts in Excel
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