Spreadsheet formatting and rules

Training Home Google Apps Education Mail Calendar Docs Sites Other Tools Module 4: Docs > Chapter 4: Spreadsheets Table of Contents Previous Chapter: Documents » Chapter 4: Spreadsheets Spreadsheets in the classroom Enter data into spreadsheets Share and collaborate with spreadsheet data Useful functions and formulas Manage your spreadsheet About sheets Move or copy sheets Hide sheets Adjust rows and columns Show, hide, and freeze rows and columns » Spreadsheet formatting and rules Copy cell formatting with format painter List view for simple spreadsheet display Check spelling Cell data validation Analyze spreadsheet data Create and publish charts Next Chapter: Presentations You can format data in your spreadsheets in a variety of ways. You'll find the standard formatting options on the Edit toolbar. In your spreadsheet, just point your cursor to an icon on the toolbar to see a message describing what that option can do. Formatting is performed on only a complete cell. It is not possible to format only parts of a cell (for example, bolding one word in the cell). Here are the main formatting options: print undo or redo last operation format cell contents change font size add bold change color of the text or a background color add borders align text merge cells horizontally in selected rows wrap text add formulas In addition to general formatting, you can also set specific rules for formatting cells based on values. By setting text and background colors with rules, you can create styles that offer a visual summary of complex or changing data. To setup formatting rules for your spreadsheet, follow these steps: Highlight the cell or range of cells that you want to apply formatting rules to. From the toolbar, select the background-color palette button (shown below), or right-click the cell or selected range of cells. In the palette drop-down menu or the right-click menu, select Change with rules..., or Change format with rules. In the window that appears, define the conditions for specific text colors and/or cell background colors. Rules can be based on matching text, checking the date, or evaluating numbers (less than, greater than, etc) The rules shown above indicate that cells containing "x" will be formatted as cells with a red background. This is an attendance sheet and will help visually identify the truancies. You can choose from multiple rules and select up to five for a given cell or range. To remove a rule, just click the "X" to the right of that rule. Please note: When you specify multiple rules, they are evaluated in the order listed. This means that the first rule found to be true will define the format of the cell or range. If you copy and paste from a cell or range that has formatting rules, these rules will be applied when you paste the copied data. If you're importing a spreadsheet, any conditional formatting it contains won't be imported.