Formatting changes made to Excelworksheetsenhance their appearance and focus attention on specific data.
Formatting alters the appearance of data but does not change the actual data in the cell.
This is important when the data is used in calculations.
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Number formatting is attached to the cell and not to the value in the cell.
Number formatting does not change the actual number in the cell, just the way it appears.
The default format for cells containing all data is the General style.
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This style has no specific format and, by default, displays numbers without dollar signs or commas.
Apply Number Formatting
The key combination to apply number formatting todataisCtrl+Shift+!
(exclamation point).
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The remaining decimal places are not removed and are used in calculations involving these values.
But most number formats are located in the Number Format drop-down list.
On this tab, the available formats are subdivided into categories in the left-hand window.
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It is for the Accounting format as shown in the image above.
Apply Percent Formatting
Ensure that data displayed in percent format is entered in decimal form.
For example, 0.33 which, when formatted for percent, displays as 33%.
In the dialog box, the number of decimal places displayed can be set from zero to 30.
Choose one of these methods to initiate the Format Cells dialog:
