Excel Tutorial: Align Cells

In this Excel Tutorial: Align Cells, you'll learn the basic alignment techniques to make your data visually attractive. You'll also learn keyboard shortcuts for cell alignment.

If you prefer video, you may view the Excel Tutorial using the video below.

To align cells in Excel, it's quite simple.

Simply select the area you would like to align, typically this would be an entire column. If the entire column needs to be aligned a specific way, then click the Column Header to make the changes to the entire column.

Once the area is selected, click the alignment option you wish by using the "Alignment" area on the "Home" tab.

Options include:

• Top, Middle, and Bottom Alignment for Vertical Alignment
• Left, Center, and Right Alignment for Horizontal Alignment
• Wrap Text to wrap the text within the cell
• Merge and Center to merge data and center it across multiple cell
• NOTE: Excel will give you a warning if you are merging data over existing data
• And there are some indentation options as well

Here are a few keyboard shortcuts for these same functions to align cells:

• CTRL + E = Center align 
• CTRL + J = Justify align
• CTRL + L = Left align
• CTRL + R = Right align

Watch this brief video tutorial, if you prefer.

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Excel Essentials: Tutorial for Beginners Now Open

I'm excited to announce my newest course - Excel Essentials: Tutorial for Beginners!

In this course, you will learn to use Excel in under 2 hours! We not only cover the basics, but teach useful Formulas, Functions, and Analysis.

I'm proud to offer my First 30 Fans with a Coupon to take the course for FREE!

Just CLICK HERE for the FREE Coupon.

All I ask in return is that you write a review on the course.

Watch this quick preview of the course to learn more:

I hope you enjoy the course, and I know that you will learn valuable Excel skills.

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Debbie

3 Ways to Analyze Data in Excel

You used to have a bit more skill to analyze data using Microsoft Excel, but these days (specifically Excel 2013 and newer versions), there are quite a few built-in features which make data analysis with Excel very simple.

Here are three (3) ways to analyze data in Excel using the Quick Analysis icon:

1) Quick Analysis - Charts
2) Quick Analysis - Totals
3) Quick Analysis - Tables

Notice anything similar? Yes, the Quick Analysis icon allows you to format data in a few simple steps. There are actually many different options within each of the three. And, there are actually 5 different Quick Analysis options, but I am highlighting 3 that are typically used for analyzing data.

To use the Quick Analysis icon, simply highlight your data and use the Quick Analysis icon that appears in the lower right corner of the data. From there, you can easily select the option you need in order to view the data in the way you would like to showcase it.

To see how this works in detail, watch the video below.

Disappearing Zeros in Excel

I hear this question a lot - In Excel, when I type in a number that has Zeros at the beginning (like a Zip Code), the Zeros disappear - how can I get them back?

First, you need to realize that Excel sets a format for every cell.  The default format depends on the information you type, as Excel tries to read your mind.  Computers are not always good mind readers.

For example:  When you type text in a cell, Excel sets the format of that cell to "text".  When you type a number, it sets the format of that cell to a number.  So, when you type in a Zip Code of "00123", Excel tells you that there are no Zeros needed and places the number "123" in the cell.
 
A quick fix for this is to Right-Click the cell and choose "Format Cells."  In the Format Dialog Box, choose "Custom" and in the "Type" field, type the number of digits for your numbering.  So, in the Example above, you would type "00000" as Zip Codes contain five digits.
 
Once you click "OK", your Disappearing Zeros will Reappear!
 
If you have a group of cells that do not contain a specific number of digits, then you will need to use a macro.  Look for future advanced training on Macros for that fix.

Excel Conditional Formatting

Excel includes a powerful feature that allows you to dynamically change the formatting of individual cells based on the results being displayed in that cell. For instance, you could make the text in the cell larger and red if a result is less than a certain threshold. Likewise, you could color the background of a cell based on the result of a formula.

To take advantage of conditional formatting, follow these steps:

Enter your cell formula as you normally would.

Choose Conditional Formatting from the Format menu. Excel displays the Conditional Formatting dialog box.

Use the controls in the dialog box to specify the threshold or ranges you want to set for formatting to be changed.

Click on the "Format" button to edit the formatting you wish to appear when the condition is True.

Click on OK to close the Format Cells dialog box.

Click on the Add button and define more conditions (and formats), if desired.

Click on the OK button to close the Conditional Formatting dialog box.

You should now see the formatting in all of the cells that meet the condition.