How to Change a Cell's Number Format in Excel 2007
Excel 2007 provides a variety of number formats that you can apply to the values (numbers) you enter in a worksheet to make the data easier to interpret. These number formats include currency, accounting, percentage, date, time, fraction, and scientific, as well as a few special formats.
How you enter values into an Excel 2007 worksheet determines the type of number format that they get. Here are some examples:
Currency: If you enter a financial value complete with the dollar sign and two decimal places, Excel assigns a Currency number format to the cell along with the entry.
Percentages: If you enter a value representing a percentage as a whole number followed by the percent sign without any decimal places, Excel assigns to the cell the Percentage number format that follows this pattern along with the entry.
Dates: If you enter a date (dates are values, too) that follows one of the built-in Excel number formats, such as 11/10/09 or 10-Nov-09, the program assigns a Date number format that follows the pattern of the date.
Even if you’re a really good typist and prefer to enter each value exactly as you want it to appear in the worksheet, you still use number formats to make the values that are calculated by formulas match the others you enter. Excel applies a General number format to all the values it calculates as well as any you enter that don’t follow one of the other Excel number formats. The General format drops all leading and trailing zeros from entries. This makes it very hard to line up numbers in a column on their decimal points. The only cure is to format the values with another number format.

Numbers with decimals don’t align when you choose General formatting.
You can assign a number format to a group of values before or after you enter them. Formatting numbers after you enter them is often the most efficient way to go because it’s just a two-step procedure:
Select the cell(s) containing the value(s) you want to format.
Select the desired number format using either of these methods:
Choose a format from the drop-down list in the Number group on the Home tab.
Click the Number dialog box launcher in the bottom-right corner of the Number group on the Home tab and select the desired format on the Number tab of the Format Cells dialog box.

Apply a number format via the Number group on the Home tab or the Format Cells dialog box.
Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+1 to open the Format Cells dialog box. Just keep in mind that the keyboard shortcut is pressing the Ctrl key plus the number 1 key, and not the function key F1.

Excel Glossary
active cell
The worksheet cell that contains the cell cursor. Each worksheet can have only one active cell.

Excel Glossary
AutoComplete
A feature that looks at the entries that you make in a worksheet column and automatically duplicates them in subsequent rows whenever you start a new entry that begins with the same letter or letters as an existing entry in that column.

Excel Glossary
AutoCorrect
A feature that alerts Excel 2007 to common typing errors and your own typing errors (that you specify) and tells the program how it should automatically fix them for you.

Excel Glossary
AutoFill
An Excel 2007 feature that quickly creates a series of entries based on the data you enter in one or two cells. AutoFill works with days of the week, months of the year, yearly quarters; consecutive series of numbers; and formulas. You also can add your own custom AutoFill series.

Excel Glossary
cell
The intersection of a column and row in the worksheet.

Excel Glossary
cell address
The cell identifier, determined by its column letter(s) followed by the row number, as in cell A1, the very first cell of each worksheet at the intersection of column A and row 1.

Excel Glossary
cell cursor
The black border that surrounds the active cell in a worksheet.

Excel Glossary
clip art
Readymade drawings, illustrations, and photos offered by Microsoft for use in Microsoft Office applications.

Excel Glossary
Compatibility Checker
A utility in Excel 2007 that you use to find potential compatibility issues if you plan to save an Excel 2007 workbook file in the older Excel 97–2003 file format.

Excel Glossary
current cell
The worksheet cell that contains the cell cursor. Each worksheet can have only one current cell.

Excel Glossary
data table
A range of cells in a worksheet in which you enter a series of possible values that Excel plugs into a formula so you can perform what-if analysis on the data.

Excel Glossary
dialog box
A rectangular window with settings and commands that appears when you click a dialog box launcher or certain other commands on the Ribbon.

Excel Glossary
dialog box launcher
A small icon in the lower-right corner of a group of command buttons on the Ribbon that you click to access a dialog box with additional related settings and commands.

Excel Glossary
function
A part of a formula that takes a number of specific arguments and then returns a single value based on those arguments.

Excel Glossary
gallery
A drop-down list of thumbnail selections that appears when you click certain command buttons on the Ribbon.

Excel Glossary
group
A section of a tab on the Excel 2007 Ribbon that organizes related command buttons into subtasks normally performed as part of the tab’s larger core task. The name of a group appears at the bottom of the group, such as the Font group on the Home tab.

Excel Glossary
hyperlink
Specially formatted text that anyone can click to jump to Web sites, move to other cells or workbooks, or create an e-mail message.

Excel Glossary
keyboard shortcuts
A combination of keys that you can press to execute certain commands, as opposed to finding and clicking the commands' buttons on the Ribbon or elsewhere.

Excel Glossary
Live Preview
A feature in Excel 2007 that enables you to point to thumbnails on a drop-down gallery to see how a new font, font size, table style, or cell style would look on your selected data before you actually apply it.

Excel Glossary
Name box
The left-most section of the Formula bar that displays the address or name of the current cell.

Excel Glossary
PDF (Portable Document File)
File format developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated that enables people to open and print documents without access to the original programs with which the documents were created.

Excel Glossary
pivot table
A special type of table unique to Excel 2007 that enables you to summarize large amounts of data and pivot or rearrange the table's data to display different summaries of the information it contains.

Excel Glossary
Ribbon
A new feature of the Excel 2007 interface that replaces the menus and toolbars of previous versions; appears at the top of the Excel window, just below the title bar.

Excel Glossary
ScreenTip
A small window that displays descriptive text when you point to but don't click a command on the Ribbon or other objects in a worksheet.

Excel Glossary
sheet tabs
Small tabs near the bottom of a worksheet that you click to move between the worksheets in a workbook. You can assign descriptive names to sheet tabs.

Excel Glossary
SmartArt
A type of graphic object in Excel 2007 that gives you the ability to quickly and easily construct graphical lists and diagrams in the worksheet.

Excel Glossary
Status bar
A horizontal bar that appears at the bottom of the Excel 2007 window and keeps you informed of Excel’s current mode. In addition, you can use the Status bar to select a new worksheet view and to zoom in and out on the worksheet.

Excel Glossary
tabs
The various "pages" of Excel 2007's Ribbon interface that you click to display command buttons relating to the tab's name, such as Page Layout and Formulas.

Excel Glossary
template
A pre-designed worksheet that can be used as a basis for creating new worksheets.

Excel Glossary
WordArt
Stylized text objects that you use to add pizzazz and emphasis to headings and other text in Excel 2007 worksheets.

Excel Glossary
workbook
The basic file type that you create when you use Excel 2007. A new workbook consists of three worksheets by default.

Excel Glossary
worksheet
The main document that you work in when you enter data into cells within Excel 2007. A worksheet is stored in a workbook file.

Excel Glossary
Worksheet area
The portion of an Excel 2007 worksheet in which you enter cell data and add objects such as charts and graphics.

Excel Glossary
Zoom slider
An object on the Status bar in Excel 2007 that enables you to increase the magnification in a worksheet or shrink it down to get an overall picture of the worksheet data.
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