Formatting: Numbers, Alignment and Conditional Presentation
Number and text appearance
Formatting changes how data looks, not what is stored. Number formats cover decimal places, thousands separators, currency, percentage and dates; the Format Cells dialog also controls alignment, font, borders, fill and protection. Wrap Text keeps long labels inside a column, and merging combines several cells into one.
Conditional formatting and styles
Conditional formatting applies formats automatically when rules are true, for example highlighting values below 50. Rules have a priority order, and the "stop if true" option prevents lower rules from running. Cell styles and the Format Painter spread consistent formatting quickly; the Format Painter needs a double-click to stay active across several targets.
Traps
- Percentage format on 0.25 shows 25%, but typing 25 and formatting as percent shows 2500%.
- Merging keeps only the top-left value and breaks sorting, filtering and some copy operations.
- Increasing decimal places rounds the display while the stored value keeps full precision.
- Wrapped text often needs the row height adjusted manually.
Rule of thumb
Format numbers after the data is correct, and apply formats to whole columns or ranges rather than single cells so new rows inherit the look. To check what is really stored, click the cell and read the formula bar.
Worked example
A price of 12.5 formatted as currency displays $12.50 while the stored value remains 12.5, so any SUM built on that column is unaffected by the appearance change.