5.3.1.3 Changing the font style and its size

Changing the font and size of the text can be achieved via Font box and the Font size available on this toolbar.

1.     Place the cell pointer on cell C1 and again select the title from C1 to E1.

2.     See the first downward pointing arrow from the left on the Formatting toolbar. Click on the downward arrow. A list of available font drops down.

3.     Make use of the scroll bar to move up or down the list of fonts. Click on Times New Roman. The setting in the font box changes to reflect the new font.

4.     You will now change the size of the font. It is currently at 10. Let’s make it 12. To do so, click on the down arrow to the right of the Font size box and then click 12 in the drop-down list.

5.     Click on the blank area of the screen so that the results can be seen. (Figure below exhibits the header with Times New Roman, 12-point size, bold and underline.

    You can experiment further with other fonts and size from the Font and Font size lists.

 

5.3.1.4 Displaying the Current Format

Take a note that the formatting toolbar always reflects the formats of the selected text. If no text is selected, the Formatting toolbar reflects the format i.e. Arial 10. If however the cell pointer is at the beginning of a range, the formatting toolbar reflects the formats of the character to the range.

F you place the cell pointer at the beginning of the header line, you will see that the Bold and Underline buttons on the Formatting toolbar appear pressed and as you move it to other parts of the text in the worksheet, they become normal.

5.3.2 Using Menus

Microsoft excel houses a range of commands that are arranged in menus on the menu bar. In fact, this mechanism is identical to all window applications.

1.     In order to choose a command on a menu, you have to click the menu name to open the menu and then click the command name on the menu. To do the same thing with the keyboard, you can press the alt key menu to activate the menu bar, press the underlined letter of the Command you want e.g. to save the file press Ctrl+S.

2.      An arrowhead follows certain Commands; it indicates that a sub menu will appear when you opt for that command. The commands available I submenus are selected just like commands from the regular menus available in Windows applications.

3.     Certain set of commands are followed by an ellipsis (…) which indicates that you must provide more information before Microsoft Excel will execute your command. On choosing one of theses commands, a dialog box appears. Certain dialog boxes have TABS. You can see the options by clicking the TABS. In case you face any problem, most of the dialog boxes have help button that provides the information about that dialog box, including how to complete its edit boxes and select its options. You close the dialog box and carry out the command according to your specifications by clicking a command button, which is usually OK or CLOSE. If you click CANCEL button, it closes the dialog box and cancels the command. Other command buttons might be available to open other dialog boxes r to refine the original command.

4.     In certain cases when command name appears dimmed, either it does not apply to your current working or it is unavailable for selection. For instance, the Paste command on the Edit menu appears dimmed until you have used the Cut or Copy command.

Let us try working on a short example. We will try to make use of menu commands and dialog boxes while changing the format of value entered in D column.

1.     Making use of either the mouse or the keyboard select the range d5:D9, which contain the values.

2.     Next click the Format on the menu bar. Format menu drops down.

3.     Click cells.. to display the dialog box. (see figure). This will lead you to a dialog box, which contains six tabs for formatting different aspects of cell. Thus it allows you to handle all the formatting from this single dialog box

4.     The First TAB - Number is on the display. Try different types of number Format and see its effect on the entered values.

5.3.3 Using Shortcut Menus

Shortcut menus are context-sensitive menus that groups together the command used frequently with a specific type of object such as a cell or a window element. You display the shortcut menu by pointing to the object and clicking the right mouse button. The action referred to as right clicking. You can choose a command from the menu in the usual way.

5.3.4 Using Keyboard Shortcuts

Just in case you find it difficult to work with the mouse and you prefer to work with the keyboard, you can access many Microsoft Excel commands with Keyboard shortcuts.

You can display a list of these shortcuts by choosing Contents and Index from the Help menu, clicking Reference Information and finally clicking keyboard shortcut reference.

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