Sample chapter: How to Change the Appearance of a Workbook in Microsoft Excel 2016

This chapter from Microsoft Excel 2016 Step by Step guides you through procedures related to changing the appearance of data, applying existing formats to data, making numbers easier to read, changing data’s appearance based on its value, and adding images to worksheets.

In this chapter

• • Format cells
  • Define styles
  • Apply workbook themes and Excel table styles
  • Make numbers easier to read
  • Change the appearance of data based on its value
  • Add images to worksheets

• Practice files

• For this chapter, use the practice files from the Excel2016SBS\Ch04 folder. For practice file download instructions, see the introduction.

• Entering data into a workbook efficiently saves you time, but you must also ensure that your data is easy to read. Microsoft Excel 2016 gives you a wide variety of ways to make your data easier to understand; for example, you can change the font, character size, or color used to present a cell’s contents. Changing how data appears on a worksheet helps set the contents of a cell apart from the contents of surrounding cells. To save time, you can define a number of custom formats and then apply them quickly to the cells you want to emphasize.

  You might also want to specially format a cell’s contents to reflect the value in that cell. For example, you could create a worksheet that displays the percentage of improperly delivered packages from each regional distribution center. If that percentage exceeds a threshold, Excel could display a red traffic light icon, indicating that the center’s performance is out of tolerance and requires attention.

  This chapter guides you through procedures related to changing the appearance of data, applying existing formats to data, making numbers easier to read, changing data’s appearance based on its value, and adding images to worksheets.

  Find the complete chapter here .