1 Title with Merge and Center. 2 Bold headings with a light fill. 3 Currency format. 4 Percent format. 5 All Borders.
Formatting changes how a cell looks. It does not change what is inside. Almost all of these buttons are on the Home tab.
Bold and colors
Select the cells. For a whole row, click the row number on the left.
Press Ctrl+B for bold. Or click the B button on the Home tab.
To color the inside of the cells, click the little arrow next to the paint bucket (Fill Color). Pick a light color.
To color the letters, click the little arrow next to the red A (Font Color). Pick a color.
Tip: Light fill colors with black letters are the easiest to read. Dark fill needs white letters.
Borders (lines around cells)
Select the cells.
On the Home tab, click the little arrow next to the Borders button. It looks like a small square with lines.
Click All Borders. Now every cell has a thin line around it, and it prints that way too.
Number formats: money, percent, and dates
Excel can show a number as money, a percent, or a date. The number stays the same. Only the look changes.
Select the cells with prices.
On the Home tab, find the Number group. Click the box that says General.
Pick Currency. Now 12.5 shows as $12.50.
For percent, select the cells and click the % button. 0.25 becomes 25%.
For dates, pick Short Date (like 11/15/2026) or Long Date (like Sunday, November 15, 2026).
Tip: The two buttons with zeros and arrows (Increase Decimal and Decrease Decimal) add or remove numbers after the dot.
Tip:Ctrl+1 opens the Format Cells window. It has every format choice in one place.
Mac: On a Mac, Format Cells is Cmd+1.
Format Painter: copy the look
Format Painter copies the look of one cell to other cells. It does not copy the words.
Click a cell that looks the way you like.
On the Home tab, click Format Painter. It looks like a paintbrush.
Click and drag over the cells you want to look the same.
Tip: Double-click the paintbrush to paint many places. Press Esc when you are done.
Merge and Center (for a title)
Type a title in A1, like My Price List.
Select A1 across to the last column of your list, for example A1 to D1.
On the Home tab, click Merge and Center.
The title now sits in the middle, over the whole list.
Tip: Use merge only for titles at the top. Merged cells inside a list cause trouble when you sort.
Freeze the top row
In a long list, the headings scroll away. Freezing keeps them in view.
Click the View tab.
Click Freeze Panes.
Click Freeze Top Row.
Now scroll down. Row 1 stays at the top. To undo it, go to View, Freeze Panes, Unfreeze Panes.
Mac: On a Mac, click View, then Freeze Top Row.
Try it
Go to the sheet 3 Price List. Make row 3 (the headings) bold with a light blue fill. Put All Borders on the whole list. Make the Price column show as Currency, and the Discount column show as a percent. Merge and center the title in row 1 across A1 to D1. Then freeze the top row and scroll down to see it.