Fix Incorrect Decimal Places During Data Entry

Category: Formatting | [Item URL]

Q. When I enter a value, it appears with two decimal places. For example, when I enter 154 it shows up as 1.54. What's wrong?

Somehow Excel's fixed-decimal mode was turned on. To return to normal, select Tools, Options to display the Options dialog box. Then click the Edit tab and remove the checkmark from the "Fixed decimal" option.

Of course, this feature can be useful when entering some types of data, but most of the time, you'll want to keep the fixed-decimal mode turned off.

Display Text In Multiple Lines

Category: Formatting | [Item URL]

Q. How can I make text in a cell display in multiple lines?

When entering text into the cell, press Alt-Enter to insert a line break.

When you do so, Excel will automatically apply text wrapping to the cell. To reformat existing cells so they sport wrapped text, select the cells and then choose Format, Cells. On the Alignment tab, select "Wrap text," and click OK.

Changing The Default Cell Comment Formatting

Category: Formatting | [Item URL]

Excel's Insert - Comment command lets you annotate a cell by typing a comment. Once the comment is created, you can change its formatting. To do this, right-click the cell and select Edit Comment from the shortcut menu. When the comment is displayed, click anywhere on its border to select the entire comment object. Now you can use the standard toolbar buttons to change the font, text size, or colors.

To change the default formatting of your cell comments (so you don't have to repeat that process each time), you need to go outside Excel and use the Windows Display Settings dialog box. Excel uses the formatting specified for Windows' ToolTips (the text that appear when your pointer hovers near toolbar buttons).

You can access the Display Settings dialog box from the Control Panel. Or, you can right-click the desktop and choose Properties. Access the Appearance tab of the Display Properties dialog box, and select the ToolTip item. You can then modify the font, the font size, the background color, the foreground color, and the Bold and Italic attributes.

NOTE: If you're using Windows XP, you need to click the Advanced button in the Appearance tab of the Display Properties dialog box. This brings up the Advanced Appearance dialog box, where you can make the change.

Be aware that this will affect all comments that have not been formatting. If you've already applied formatting to a comment (for example, changed the background color), that comment will not be affected by this change.

Change The Formatting Of Your Subtotal Rows

Category: Formatting | [Item URL]

Excel's Data, Subtotals command inserts subtotal formulas into a list. This is a very useful command, but it's often difficult to identify the subtotal rows.

You may want to make the subtotal rows stand out by applying special formatting. However, this can't be done by any of Excel's autoformats. Use the outline controls on the left side of the workbook to collapse the outline so only the subtotal rows are visible. Press F5, select Visible Cells Only, and click OK. Then apply formatting to the selected cells.

When you expand the outline, only the subtotal rows will have the formatting you applied.

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