Tag Archives: Format

Useful custom formats

Some neat Excel custom formats A few nice custom Excel formats for you to use. <;;;> Stores a value, but doesn’t display it <00000> Always stores five digits. So 453 becomes 00453. Useful for US zip codes <[Black] General> To … Continue reading →

Hiding a cell’s contents

If you want to hide the contents of a cell, instead of matching its font colour with its background, give it a custom number format of ";;;" (without the quotes). It's more elegant and won't suddenly appear if the background … Continue reading →

Formatting shortcut

CTRL+1 is a very useful shortcut to bring up the Format Cells dialog box.

Formatting percentages

Time and again, I receive spreadsheets from people multiplying numbers by 100 to show them as percentages. Here's a brief overview of how percentages work, both generally and specifically in Excel. A percentage is merely an expression of a ratio. … Continue reading →