In this article, we will learn How to custom format cell in Excel.
What is the Format cell option ?
Custom format option lets you change the format of the number inside the cell. This is required because excel reads date and Time as General numbers. Format cell option allows you to change in any of the given formats.
Under the custom option you can use the type of format required.
You can access the Format cell option in the Home tab to change the format as shown below.
Just drop down from arrow and select from the view option or click the right most red box button as shown in the above image to open More number formats
There are some shortcuts to convert a number into different formats.
Format | Shortcut key |
General number | Ctrl + Shift + ~ |
Currency format | Ctrl Shift $ |
Percentage format | Ctrl Shift % |
Scientific format | Ctrl + Shift + ^ |
Date format | Ctrl + Shift + # |
Time format | Ctrl + Shift + @ |
Custom formats | Ctrl + 1 |
Example :
All of these might be confusing to understand. Let's understand how to use the function using an example. Here we will see how one number can be seen many different formats.
These are some of the format options of the number -2 in different formats.
Now there’s one more thing. Numbers represent so many values in a text as Date, Time and currency. So Sometimes you need to change the format cell type to required field type using Format cell option.
Use the format cell option shown below or Ctrl + 1 shortcut keyboard key that will open a full Format cell dialog box
Changing the format you will get
As you can see from the above snapshot that the number in general representation is converted to date format.
Here are all the observational notes using the custom format option in Excel
Notes :
Hope this article about How to custom format cell in Excel is explanatory. Find more articles on calculating values and related Excel formulas here. If you liked our blogs, share it with your friends on Facebook. And also you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook. We would love to hear from you, do let us know how we can improve, complement or innovate our work and make it better for you. Write to us at info@exceltip.com.
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