Office 2013 In Depth

Formatting Values

The number formats provided by Excel for the numerical values in your sheets are extremely useful for differentiating the different types of values present. You want to make it easy for anyone viewing the sheet to be able to quickly distinguish between the different types of data in a sheet, such as currency, percentages, or dates. Obviously, you can format values as you format text in a sheet with settings, such as bold and italic or a font color; however, assigning actual numeric formatting to a value (such as currency or percentages) gives that value or range of values immediate meaning.

Although you can enter numbers with formatting as you type, such as $20.50 or 2,300 (Excel automatically recognizes this number formatting), ...