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How to format cells using the toolbar.

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Toolbar Options in Sheets
Link Toolbar Options in Sheets Solution
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Quick reference

Toolbar Options in Sheets

The toolbar contains the most commonly used options for editing cells in Google Sheets.

When to use

When you need to modify the contents or layout of cells in Google Sheets.

Instructions

Toolbar buttons

  • Print - Print the sheet
  • Undo - Undo the last action
  • Redo - Undo an undo
  • Paint format - Select a cell and click this button to copy a format; select another cell to apply the format
  • Format as currency - Format numbers as dollars
  • Format as percent - Format numbers as a percent (1=100%)
  • Decrease decimal places - Remove decimal places one at a time, rounding numbers to the next place
  • Increase decimal places - Add decimal places
  • More formats
    • Plain text: Display contents as text without formatting
    • Number: Format contents as a number, including commas and decimal places
    • Percent: Format numbers as a percent (1=100%)
    • Scientific: Format numbers using scientific notation
    • Financial: Format numbers using financial style (brackets used in place of negative numbers for example)
    • Automatic: Predict format based on contents
    • Currency: Format numbers as dollars
    • Date: Format numbers as a date using MM/DD/YYYY
    • Time: Format numbers as a time of day
    • Date time: Format numbers as a date and time of day
    • Duration: Format numbers as a period of time
    • More formats
      • More currencies: More currency formats from around the world, including customizable currency formats
      • More date and time formats: More date and time formats, including customizable date and time formats
      • Custom number format: Customize any number format
  • Font - Change font; click “more fonts” to see more options
  • Font size - Change the size of cell contents
  • Bold - Make bold
  • Italic - Make italic
  • Strikethrough - Add strikethrough
  • Text color - Change color of cell contents
  • Fill color - Change color of cell
  • Borders - Add borders around cells; select the cells and click on the desired border
    • Border color: Change border color
    • Border style: Change border style
  • Merge cells - Merge selected cells into a single cell
    • Merge all: Merge selected cells into a single cell
    • Merge horizontally: Merge selected cells into rows
    • Merge vertically: Merge selected cells into columns
    • Unmerge: Separate merged cells
  • Horizontal align
    • Left: Move contents to the left side of the cell
    • Center: Move contents to the center of the cell
    • Right: Move contents to the right side of the cell
  • Vertical align
    • Top: Move contents to the top of the cell
    • Middle: Move contents to the middle of the cell
    • Bottom: Move contents to the bottom of the cell
  • Text wrapping - Controls what happens when the contents of the cell are too long to fit in the cell
    • Overflow: Contents are displayed overlapping the next cell
    • Wrap: The cell is made taller and text is displayed in lines
    • Clip: Text that extends outside the cell is hidden
  • Insert link - Select a cell and click “Insert link;” paste a URL to turn the cell into a link
  • Insert comment - Add notes and conversations about the sheet without having to edit it
  • Insert chart - Add a customizable chart based on selected data
  • Filter - Add a filter
  • Functions - Add a function
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  • 00:04 Let's take a look at how we can format pieces of information within our
  • 00:08 Spreadsheet.
  • 00:10 Now, within the Google Sheets toolbar,
  • 00:13 we may see a number of icons, a number of different ways in which we can
  • 00:17 edit information as we've seen in other Google Drive applications.
  • 00:22 Such common ones include the ability to print, undo, or redo.
  • 00:28 Over here we see the ability to change the text font,
  • 00:32 also the text size, along with things such as bold, italicize, etc.
  • 00:37 These are things that we have certainly seen before.
  • 00:40 But you will notice the number of different edits, a number of different
  • 00:44 ways in which we can manipulate the information here within our spreadsheet.
  • 00:49 Let's start off by doing something relatively basic.
  • 00:52 And that is, I like to bold the column headers here.
  • 00:56 So I'm gonna select the bold item here and here it just makes it that much easier to
  • 01:00 see what the heading is for each and every item here within this simple table.
  • 01:07 Speaking of a table, why don't we make this look a little bit more like a table?
  • 01:12 We are going to add some borders to this particular set of data.
  • 01:16 So to do so you want to click, and drag, and
  • 01:19 select the cells where you would like those borders to appear.
  • 01:23 And over here, we are going to select the border's icon.
  • 01:27 Now you have a few different options.
  • 01:29 You can just add border on one side of the selected cells or
  • 01:33 maybe we just want a border around the entire group of cells.
  • 01:38 But in this case, you know what?
  • 01:39 I"m gonna select everything,
  • 01:41 I want everything to be encapsulated within its own respective cell.
  • 01:46 So now, we can see everything is sort of separated out here within our basic table.
  • 01:52 Now, I see that our table headings are to the left-hand side but
  • 01:58 you may notice that our quantitative data here in the middle is to the right.
  • 02:03 And I find that's not quite as easy to read.
  • 02:05 So I'd like to center both the title here and
  • 02:09 the information that it's contained in here.
  • 02:12 To do so, once again, I can either select the specific cells or
  • 02:16 if I'd like it to apply to the entire column, so
  • 02:19 for example, perhaps I'd like to add even more information at a later date.
  • 02:24 I'm gonna select the column.
  • 02:26 And here you can see I've selected every single cell within that column.
  • 02:32 And I'm gonna go over here and I'm gonna change the alignment.
  • 02:36 In this case, I'm gonna select center.
  • 02:38 So now everything within this particular column including
  • 02:42 new pieces of information that I add will all be centered.
  • 02:47 And with the Eye Color, I'd like to do the same.
  • 02:50 Why don't we do the same with all three of these columns?
  • 02:53 So I'm gonna select all three of the columns.
  • 02:56 And in this case, I'm gonna select centered.
  • 02:58 I find it's just a bit easier for
  • 03:00 me to read especially when I've got such a relatively small amount of data here.
  • 03:05 Now, one last thing that I would like to do by using the toolbar
  • 03:10 actions up above is I would like to round the weight data.
  • 03:14 Here you can see I have the weight of these individuals here on the left and
  • 03:18 it has been rounded to one decimal point, but I'd like it to be even cleaner.
  • 03:23 I'd like to show it in just a complete round number so
  • 03:28 that there is no decimals at all.
  • 03:30 So in this case, I'm gonna select the cells that I'd like to change and
  • 03:35 I’m going to go up here, and here you see we have two options.
  • 03:37 We can decrease the decimal places or we can increase the decimal
  • 03:42 places in case there is more information that is available to us.
  • 03:47 Well, in this case, I wanna remove that decimal place, so
  • 03:51 I’m gonna select decrease decimal places.
  • 03:54 And now you can see it is automatically rounded up or
  • 03:58 down the pieces of data that have been held within this particular column.
  • 04:03 So it's just that much easier for us to see it.
  • 04:06 There are some other functions that you will wanna be familiar with here as well.
  • 04:10 So, for example, we could change any piece
  • 04:13 of numerical data to a percentage or to a currency.
  • 04:18 So everything would have a dollar value and would have a cents value as well.
  • 04:24 So those are just a handful of the number of things you can
  • 04:27 do here within the Sheets toolbar.
  • 04:30 For a complete reference, I would encourage you to check out
  • 04:33 the Reference Guide, which is apart of this particular module.

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