Excel Ranges and Formatting

• A block of cells in an Excel worksheet constitutes a range
• A contiguous range of cells refers to a block of adjacent cells in a worksheet
• A noncontiguous range of cells refers to cells in a worksheet that act as a block, but are not necessarily adjacent

Using Dialog Boxes

• The collapse dialog box button is used when cell addresses or ranges need to be entered in a dialog box
• After selecting a range, clicking the Expand Dialog Box button restores the dialog box to its normal size, allowing you to finalize selections

Selecting Noncontiguous Cells

• Click and drag across the initial selection of cells
• Press and hold the Control key while clicking additional cells and/or dragging over additional ranges

Number Formats

• The number format dictates how numerical data displays, including commas, dollar signs, and decimal places
• The accounting format aligns dollar signs, thousands separators, and decimal points vertically
• Percent format displays decimal numbers as a percentage
• Comma format displays numbers with a thousands separator
• Currency format displays dollar signs immediately before the number and includes a thousands separator

Themes and Fonts

• The Theme gallery can be accessed via the page layout tab
• Cell styles in a theme include column heading, totals, and worksheet title styles
• Font formats are grouped under the home tab of the ribbon

Custom Number Formats

• If a desired number format is not available, one can create a custom format based on a similar one
• Decimal places can be adjusted using the increase and decrease decimal buttons

Fill Handle

• Dragging the fill handle, located in the lower right corner of an active cell, duplicates cell contents, formatting, or a formula to adjacent cells

Cell References

• A relative cell reference is a cell address expressed relative to the cell containing the formula
• An absolute cell reference is a cell address in a formula that remains constant regardless of the cell's location containing that formula, and is indicated by a $ before both the column letter and row number

Format Painter

• The format painter duplicates the following format features: font, font size, font color, cell border, and cell fill color

Columns and Rows

• Inserting columns in a worksheet shifts existing columns to the right
• Inserting rows in a worksheet shifts existing rows down

Drag and Drop

• Select a range, then drag the border surrounding it to the new location
• Release the mouse button to drop the data

Grouping

• Grouping refers to worksheets selected as a unit
• Any action on this unit affects all worksheets in the group

Sheet Tab Options

• Right-clicking a sheet tab provides a shortcut menu with options to insert, delete, rename, move, and copy worksheets
• Renaming sheets facilitates tracking data on individual sheets
• Grouped sheet tabs appear white, while the active sheet tab appears in bold

Copying Sheets

• Select the tab(s) of the sheet(s) to copy
• Go to the home tab
• Click the format button
• Click move or copy sheet
• Choose the destination for the copied sheet(s)
• Click OK