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1.4 Formatting that helps rather than decorates

Checked against Microsoft's Excel for Windows keyboard references, August 2026

తెలుగులో చదవండి

What you'll be able to do

Make a sheet readable by someone who did not build it. Numbers shown as what they are, headings that stay in view, and no decoration anywhere else.

Before you start

Download the formatting practice workbook. It opens on a plain range that needs everything this lesson teaches.

The work

  1. Same either way: press Ctrl1. The Format Cells dialog opens. Nearly every formatting decision lives in this one dialog: number formats on the Number tab, and alignment, borders and fills on their own tabs. Learn its name, because this lesson keeps coming back to it.
  2. Same either way: two number formats have their own keys. CtrlShiftPercent sign applies the Percentage format with no decimal places. CtrlShiftDollar sign applies the Currency format with two decimal places.
  3. With the mouse: use Home → Number → Percent Style, and the Increase Decimal and Decrease Decimal buttons beside it. With the keyboard: press Ctrl1 and set the exact number of decimal places on the Number tab. The dialog gives finer control than the buttons do.
  4. Same either way: rupee amounts need Indian digit grouping. Open Format Cells (Ctrl1), choose Currency on the Number tab, and pick the ₹ symbol. Check one large value first, and see that it reads the way an Indian reader expects.
  5. Same either way: bold the heading row with CtrlB. Bold, borders and fills carry meaning only while they stay rare. Format to point at what matters, never to decorate.
  6. No documented keyboard shortcut for this — use the menu: to wrap long text inside its cell, go to Home → Wrap Text.
  7. Same either way: avoid merged cells. Merging breaks sorting, selecting and screen reader movement alike. To centre a title across columns, open Format Cells (Ctrl1) → Alignment, and set Horizontal to Center Across Selection. It looks the same and breaks nothing.
  8. No documented keyboard shortcut for this — use the menu: to keep the heading row in view while you scroll, go to View → Freeze Panes → Freeze Top Row.
  9. No documented keyboard shortcut for this — use the menu: before printing, go to Page Layout → Scale to Fit and set Width to 1 page. Then open File → Print and read the preview. A sheet that prints sideways across two pages is read by nobody.

Try it

Open the practice workbook's plain range and make it readable. Bold the headings. Format the amount column as rupee currency. Set the percentages. Wrap the one long-text column, and freeze the top row. Then open File → Print and check that it fits one page wide.

Check yourself

Ctrl1. Nearly every formatting decision lives inside it.

Merging breaks sorting, selection and screen reader movement. Center Across Selection, on the Alignment tab of Format Cells, centres the title without merging anything.

The Percentage format, with no decimal places.

View → Freeze Panes → Freeze Top Row.

Go deeper

We haven't checked most of these for screen reader use yet.

Back to Formatting that helps rather than decorates: work through the checklist