IT1802

Formatting
• Borders are added around cells to:
o Distinguish specific values
o Outline summarized values
o Separate data into ranges of cells.
• A cell style is a defined set of formatting characteristics, such as fonts and font sizes, number formats,
cell borders, and cell shading.
• A number format controls how a value is displayed in a cell.
• The following are number formats in Excel:
o General – the default number format that is applied when a number is typed
o Number – used for the general display of numbers
o Currency – used for the general monetary values and displays the default currency symbol
with numbers
o Accounting – used for monetary values, but it aligns the currency symbols and the decimal
points of numbers in a column
o Date
o Time
o Percentage – multiplies the cell value by 100 and displays the result with a percent (%) symbol
o Fraction
o Scientific – displays a number in exponential notation, replacing part of the number with E+n,
where E (Exponent) multiplies the preceding number by 10 to the nth power. For example,
12345678901 is displayed as 1.23E+10, which is 1.23 times 10 the 10th power.
o Text – displays the content exactly as you type it
o Special – used for tracking lists and database values; used to display a number as a postal code
(ZIP code), phone number, or Social Security numbers
o Custom – allows you to modify a copy of an existing number format code.
• Conditional formatting is applied to easily spot patterns and trends in the data. This makes use of
colors, bars, and icons to visually highlight important values.

Tables
• A table contains related data in a series of worksheet rows and columns.
• The elements of an Excel table are the following:
o Header row – contains the title of each column

o Banded rows – contain the actual data

o Calculated columns – columns with data that will be used for computation
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o Total row – displays the total of the computation performed on the calculated columns

o Sizing handle – found in the upper-right corner that can be dragged to resize the table.

Charts
• A chart is used to visualize data to create maximum impact on your audience.
• Chart types include the following:
o Column – It displays categories along the horizontal axis and values along the vertical axis.
o Line – Category data is distributed evenly along the horizontal axis, and all value data is
distributed evenly along the vertical axis.
o Pie – This shows the size of items in a single data series proportional to the sum of the items.
The data points in a pie chart are shown as a percentage of the whole pie.
 Doughnut – This also shows the relationships of parts to a whole, but it can contain
more than a single data series.
o Bar – This displays categories along the vertical axis and values along the horizontal axis.
o Area – It is used to plot change over time and draw attention to the total value across a trend.
o X Y (Scatter) – This combines x and y values into single data points and shows them in irregular
intervals or clusters. Scatter charts are typically used for showing and comparing numerical
values, like scientific, statistical, and engineering data.
 Bubble – This is a scatter chart added with a third column to specify the size of the
bubbles it shows to represent the data points in the data series.
o Map – This compares values and shows categories across geographical regions
o Stock – It shows fluctuations in stock prices. It can also be used for other data, such as daily
rainfall or annual temperatures.
o Surface – It is used to find optimum combinations between two (2) sets of data.
o Radar – This compares the aggregate values of several data series.
o Treemap – It provides a hierarchical view of data and an easy way to compare different levels
of categorization. It displays categories by color and proximity.
o Sunburst – This displays hierarchical data and can be plotted when empty cells exist within
the hierarchal structure.
o Histogram – It shows the frequencies of data within a distribution.
o Box & Whisker – Whisker chart shows the distribution of data into quartiles, highlighting the
mean and outliers. The boxes may have lines extending vertically called “whiskers”.
o Waterfall – This shows a running total of your financial data as values are added or subtracted.
o Funnel – It shows values across multiple stages in a process.
o Combo – It combines two (2) or more chart types to make the data easy to understand,
especially when the data is widely varied.
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Column Line Pie

Doughnut Bar Area

X Y (Scatter) Bubble Surface

Radar Treemap Sunburst

Histogram Box & Whisker Waterfall

Funnel Combo
References:
Parsons, J., Oja, D., Carey, P., and DesJardins, C. (2017). New perspectives Microsoft Office 365 & Excel 2016. USA: Cengage Learning.
Office 365 Training Center. (2018). In Microsoft Office. Retrieved from https://support.office.com/en-us/office-training-center

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