Formatting a worksheet can change the look and feel of it. You can add color, change fonts, put in headings, apply styles, and much more. Taking the time to format a worksheet can take it from the black and white page of data and grid lines to something that looks professional and attractive.

Font is defined as the style of your type. Times New Roman, Courier, and Arial are three of the most popular fonts, but there are literally hundreds. When you create a worksheet, you can decide what type of font you want to use. You can also decide the size of the font.

In the snapshot below, we've used Arial, size 10 font.

However, we can change that to another font and another size. Let's change it to Courier, size 12.

You can clearly see how just changing the font type and size can alter the look of a worksheet. But let's learn how to do it.

To change the font type and size, go to Font group under the Home tab.

Next, select the data in the worksheet for which you want to change the font.

Go to the Font group, and you'll see the type of font that you're currently using. It appears in a box with a downward arrow beside it on the left side of the toolbar. In our example, and on our toolbar, it's Calibri.

Click on the downward arrow beside the font type and select a new font. We're going to select Arial. Once you select the font, the selected data will be changed to the new font.

To change the size, select the cells, then click the downward arrow beside the current size:

You may want to select boldface, italicize, or underline data inside cells. The boldface command in MS Excel is represented by an uppercase, boldfaced B. Italics are represented by an uppercase, italicized 'I', and underline by an uppercase U with a line under it. These buttons are located directly below the font type window in the Font group.

To add italics, boldface, or underlining to data in cells, select the desired cells, then click the appropriate button (B for boldfaced, I for italic, or U for underline.)

You also can add borders to cells, or a range of cells, by selecting the cell(s) you want to add a border to, then by clicking in the Font group.

Simply select where you want to border to appear. You can also change the line color of the border and the border style (such as dashed or solid lines).

Changing the font color is as simple as changing the font. By default, your text in Excel 2013 appears in a black font. If you want to change the font color, look for the uppercase A with a colored bar under it in the Font group as pictured below.

Select your text, then click on the button to choose the color you want to apply to the selected text.

You can also add color to a cell or range of cells. This doesn't change the font color, but instead provides a colored background.

To the left of the font color button, you'll see what looks like a paint bucket with a yellow bar underneath it. Simply select the cells you want to give a color, click the button, and select the color of highlight that you want to apply.

In the example below, we chose orange:

Please note the cell borders that show up in Excel by default are no longer displayed when we add color. If you want borders, you have to add them.

Click the arrow in the right side bottom corner of the Font group to access the Font Dialog box.

The dialog box looks like this:

From this dialog box, you can format your data just as you did from the Ribbon. The Preview section of the dialog box lets you preview your changes before you apply them.

Click OK when you're finished making changes to apply them to your spreadsheet.

The mini-bar appears whenever you right click within a cell:

In the snapshot above, you can see that it contains the tools to change the font, font size, etc. You can use this to format your cells to save the time you'd spend going to the Ribbon.

Merging cells simply means that you merge a group of cells into one cell. It is not the same as combining cells, because when you combine cells, the data in those cells is also combined.

When you merge cells, the information in the upper left cell is centered in the merged cell. If the content you want in the merged cells is not in the upper left cell, then you must copy and paste the data into the upper left cell.

Note: It's important to remember that the cells you merge must be adjacent.

To merge cells:

Select the cells to be merged.

Go to the Alignment group under the Home tab, then click Merge and Center.

Select an option:

Important Note: The cells that you merge cannot be active. Merge and Center will not appear if any cells are active.

You can change the appearance of numbers in MS Excel 2013 without changing the value behind those numbers. The actual value is always displayed in the Formula Bar.

For example, we can have a number formatted like this in the worksheet:

But in the Formula Bar, it's still displayed like this:

You can apply a number format to a cell by selecting the cell(s) that you want to format, right clicking, and selecting Format Cells and select the Number tab.

In the dialog box above, you can choose the type of number formatting that you want from the Category box. An explanation of how the formatting is used appears at the bottom of the dialog box when you click on a specific type of number formatting.

If you go to the dialog box above, and click Custom in the Category box, you can then create a custom number formatting based on an existing number format in MS Excel 2013.

In the Type list, select the format that you want to edit and edit it in the Type box.

Click OK when you're finished.

You can align the data in a cell to the left, right, or center.

To align data to the left means to align it to the left side of the cell. Simply select the cell(s) that contain the data you want to align to the left.

Go to the Alignment group under the Home tab.

Click on the to align to the left.

Click to align to the right.

Click to align to the center.

Click to align data to the top of a cell.

Click to align data to the middle of the cell.

Click to align data to the bottom of the cell.

You can also indent data in cells. When you increase the indent, you increase the margin between data in the cell and the left cell border.

The cell pictured below has text data in it.

Select the cells that contain data that you want to indent. Then, go to the Alignment group under the Home tab.

The two buttons pictured below allow you to decrease indent (first button), or increase indent.

We're going to increase the indent (second button).

Text wrap will wrap the entries from selected cells that have data that spills over their right borders.

Here's an example:

Select the cell(s) you want to apply text wrap to, then click the Wrap Text button in the Alignment group under the Home tab: .

As you can see, the text is now wrapped to fit between the left and right borders of the cell.

Instead of wrapping text in cells, you can also change the orientation of the text by rotating the text up or down. This can work well with labels in worksheets.

In the example below, we're going to change the orientation of the data that contains the days of the week.

To start with, we've selected the cells that contain this data:

Next, we go to the Alignment group under the Home tab and click the Orientation button:

Now we get to choose the new orientation:

We're going to choose Rotate Text Up.

The Format As Table Gallery is a way to format your cells without having to select the cells first. Think of it as a shortcut to formatting cells. Your cell cursor just has to be within the table of data right before you click the Format As Table button that's located in the Styles group under the Home tab (pictured below).

We're going to put our mouse cursor in a cell by clicking on the cell.

Now we're going to go to the Format As Table button and look at the gallery.

Choose a formatting style that you want.

When you click on a style you want, you'll see this dialog box:

This contains the cells referenced for the formatting. You change this.

If your table has headers or labels, make sure the box is checked.

Click OK.

In addition to adding formatting from the gallery, the Design tab opens in the Ribbon.

In the Design tab is a Table Styles Options group that allows you customize even further.

Header Row adds formatting and filter buttons to each of the headings in the first row. Ours already has filter buttons (the down arrow).

• Total Row goes at the bottom of the table for totals.

• Banded Rows means shading will be applied to every other row.

• First Column puts row headings in the first column in boldface.

• Last Column puts row headings in the last column of the table in boldface.

• Banded Columns applies shading to every other column.

Conditional formatting is a neat little feature of MS Excel 2013, because it helps you do your job better. Let's say you're entering an employee's work hours into a spreadsheet. Your boss has told you to let him know if anyone exceeds more than eight hours in any given day. Did you know that you Excel can notify you each time this happens? You can program MS Excel 2013 to give you a "red flag" every time a certain situation exists.

To apply conditional formatting, go to the Styles group under the Home tab. Click the downward arrow.

Let's learn what each of the options does for you:

• Highlight Cells Rules allows you to define rules that highlight the cells in the cell selection when certain values, such as text or dates, have greater or lesser than a value that you specify, or fall within a range of values.

• Top/Bottom Rules gives you options for defining rules that highlight the top and bottom values, percentages, and above- and below-average values in a cell selection.

• Data Bars opens a palette with different colors of data bars. You can apply these to a cell selection to indicate their values relative to each other.

• Color Scales opens a palette with different color scales that you can apply to a cell selection to indicate their values relative to each other.

• Icon Sets will open a palette with icons. You can apply these icons to a cell selection to indicate values relative to each other by clicking the color scale thumbnail.

• New Rule allows you to create new rules.

• Clear Rules allows you to remove conditional formatting rules for the cell selection.

• Manage Rules opens a dialog box where you can edit and delete rules.

Let's apply conditional formatting to our spreadsheet.

We're going to use Highlight Cell Rules.

First, we select the cells. This is our cell selection.

Now, we go to Conditional Formatting on the Ribbon and choose Highlight Cell Rules.

We want to cells to be highlighted when a value is greater than $50. We chose Greater Than from the side menu that appears when you click Highlight Cell Rules.

We want to format cells that are greater than $50, so we're going to enter that into the box.

You can choose different highlight colors from the drop-down menu.

Click OK when you're finished.

As you can see in our snapshot below, the cells over $50 are now highlighted.

We could also apply conditional formatting to a selection of blank cells so the data is "flagged" when it meets the criteria.

If you frequently use the same formatting options for the cells in your worksheets, you may want to create a formatting style to save you time. A formatting style is a collection of formatting choices. It may include, but not be limited to, font, font size, and color.

To create a new style, first format a cell with the selection of styles that you want.

Select the cell.

We've selected the cell below as our example:

Next, go to the Home tab to the Styles group, and click the arrow circled in red below:

Select New Style from the drop-down menu.

Create a name for the style, then choose the formatting options that you want to include in the style.

Click OK when you're finished.

As you can see, our new style now appears as the first style on the left in the Style Gallery.

You can also apply pre-created styles from the Style Gallery and apply them to cells or ranges of cells.

To apply a style, select a cell or range of cells, then choose the style from the gallery that you want to apply.

Quick Analysis is a feature that's new to Excel 2013. It can make doing things, such as creating charts, adding sums, or even formatting cells easier than ever before. In fact, you can do it in as little as two clicks of the mouse.

To format cells using Quick Analysis, first select the cells that you want to format.

When you select your cells, you'll see the Quick Analysis button appear at the bottom right of the selection:.

Click on it and the Quick Analysis tool opens:

By default, Formatting options are shown to you when you click on the tool. From here, you can apply conditional formatting.

The Format Painter tool is located under the Home tab in the Clipboard group. It looks like this:. The Format Painter looks like a broom, but it acts more like a paintbrush.

Using it, you can "borrow" the formatting from cells, or selections of cells, and apply the same formatting somewhere else. It's operates a lot like the "copy" function in Excel, except instead of copying text, you're copying formatting.

To use the Format Painter, select the cell or cells for which you want to copy formatting.

Now, click the Format Painter button. You'll notice that the cursor changes to a paintbrush.

Next, select the cell(s) you want to change to paint with the borrowed format.