Select Turquoise from the Recent Colors section of the Fill Color gallery

You've formatted the cells by adding a bottom border and changing the background fill color to turquoise.

3. The Format Cells dialog box

To access a wider range of formatting options, you can open the Format Cells dialog box. You access this dialog box by clicking the Font launcher.

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The Format Cells dialog box has several tabs: Number, Alignment, Font, Border, Fill, and Protection. By default, the Font tabbed page displays.

You can use the Number tabbed page to apply different formatting options to numbers.

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The Number tabbed page contains a Category list, which includes categories such as General, Number, Date, and Time. There is also a Sample section as well as a Type list box, and a Locale (location) drop-down list box. With the Date category selected, the Sample section contains the date 11/26/2010. In the Type list, *3/14/2001 is selected. The Locale (location) drop-down list is set to English (U.S.).

And the Alignment tabbed page lets you alter the way text is positioned within cells.

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The Alignment tabbed page contains the Text alignment, Text control, Right-to-left, and Orientation sections.

You use the Protection tabbed page to lock or hide certain cells.

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The Protection tabbed page has two checkboxes: Locked and Hidden. Enabling these settings has no effect unless the worksheet is protected.

On the Font tabbed page, you can alter the font, font style, font size, and color of the text in selected cells.

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The Font tabbed page has Font, Font style, and Size list boxes, each containing several options.

There are also Underline and Color drop-down list boxes and a Normal font checkbox. In addition, there are two sections: Effects and Preview.

You can select different underlining effects from the Underline drop-down list.

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Options in the Underline drop-down list are None, Single, Double, Single Accounting, and Double Accounting.

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You can also choose to apply strikethrough, superscript, or subscript effects to text. And you can view the effect of options you choose before applying them in the Preview pane.

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The Effects section has three checkboxes: Strikethrough, Superscript, and Subscript.

On the Border tabbed page, you can choose the style and color of a border to apply to selected cells.

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The Border tabbed page includes a Line section with a Style pane, which displays sample line styles, and a Color drop-down list – which expands to display a gallery.

You can then choose where the border must be positioned – for example, inside or outside a cell's boundary, or only along the top or one of the sides of the cell. To do this, you can click one of the buttons in the Presets section, click the required position inside the Border preview window, or click one of the buttons surrounding the Border preview window.

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The Border tabbed page also contains two sections: Presets and Border. The Presets section includes three options – None, Outline, and Inside. The Border section contains a preview window and a button for each possible placement of a border within a cell.

Using options on the Fill tabbed page, you can change the background color of selected cells to a color you choose from the Background Color gallery.

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The Fill tabbed page includes a Background Color gallery. There are also Pattern Color and Pattern Style drop-down lists, as well as Fill Effects and More Colors buttons.

You can also choose to add a pattern to the cells.

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You use the Pattern Color and Pattern Style drop-down list boxes for this.

You can use the Pattern Color drop-down gallery to select a pattern color. The gallery lets you choose from colors associated with the theme currently applied to your document, from a set of

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standard colors, or from colors you've used recently. You can also choose to access more color options.

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The Pattern Color drop-down gallery contains the Theme Colors, Standard Colors, and Recent Colors sections. More Colors are available and the Automatic color chip is selected.

You select the pattern itself from the Pattern Style drop-down gallery. The gallery displays each pattern in black and white, although it will be applied in whichever color you choose from the Pattern Color drop-down gallery.

Clicking the Fill Effects button opens the Fill Effects dialog box.

You can use this dialog box to apply a gradient, with color and a shading style you choose, as the background color of cells.

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The Fill Effects dialog box has one tab named Gradient. It has four sections: Colors, Shading styles, Variants, and Sample.

In the Fill Effects dialog box, the Colors section includes three options.

One color

You choose the One color option to apply a gradient consisting of a single color – but with a gradual change in shading – as the background color of the selected cells.

Two colors

You can choose the Two colors option to apply a gradient in which one color gradually transforms into a second color. For example, you can use this option to apply a background in which white gradually changes to blue in a cell or range of cells. You can specify the two colors to use.

Preset

You choose the Preset option to apply a gradient using the color currently set as the default.

In the Shading styles section, you can specify how the shading in the gradient you apply must display. For example, you can set the shading to transition horizontally or vertically or from the center of the selected cells outwards.

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The Shading styles section includes Horizontal, Vertical, Diagonal up, Diagonal down, From corner, and From center radio buttons.

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For the style that's currently selected, the Variants section displays additional options. For instance, using two colors and with the Horizontal option selected in the Shading styles section, you can choose whether the darkest shading must begin in a horizontal band at the bottom, top, or center of the selected cells.

Also in the Fill Effects dialog box, a Sample block provides a preview of the selected options.

The Fill tabbed page also lets you apply a pattern over the background color. You can use the Pattern Color drop-down gallery to select a pattern color.

You can then select the pattern itself from the Pattern Style drop-down gallery.

Try It

Now you try formatting the selected cells using the Format Cells dialog box. You want to add a two-color gradient as a fill effect and to add a thick bottom border to the cells.

The cell range C12:G12 – column headers – is selected in the Expense Budget December worksheet.

To complete the task