Create Custom Styles: MS Excel

If you're tired of reformatting Excel cells over and over with the same format, then take heart because you don't have to any longer!

If you want to format each cell containing a sum total with a single line top border and a double-line bottom border you can do that! If you want the total results to be in currency format you can do that too!

To create a style that will automatically format these cells for you, follow these steps:

1. Click on one of the total cells in your worksheet.
    
2. Go to Format | Style.
    
3. In the Style name box, type Total cell.
    
4. Click Modify.
    
5. Under the Number tab, select Currency.
    
6. Under the Border Tab, select Single Line under Line styles and click the Top Border button on the menu to the left.
    
7. Select the Double Line under Line styles, then click the Bottom Border button. on the left.
    
8. Click OK twice.
    

When you want to format a total cell, select the cell and go to Format | Style, choose Total Cell from the drop-down list and click OK.

This feature won't save you much time if you have to do it for every workbook. Luckily, you can copy the style to any other workbook by following these steps:

1. Open the workbook that contains the already defined style.
    
2. Open the workbook to where you would like to copy the style.
    
3. In the workbook where you want to copy the style, go to Format | Style. Click Merge.
    
4. Select the other open workbook from the list and click OK.
    

If you want to have your named styles available to all worksheets, you can merge them to an Excel template file.

Visit Carol's web site to learn more tips like this one!