How to Change Font Size in Excel (A Complete Guide)

Changing the font size in Excel can significantly enhance the visual appeal and readability of your data. Adjusting the font size in Excel is important for improving presentation focus. It helps to keep a consistent and professional appearance across various worksheets and workbooks in Excel projects.

In this Excel tutorial, you will learn how to change the font size.

In the following dataset, we have information about employees in a company. We will change the font size based on the selection.

Changing Default Font Size in Excel

Changing the default font size provides a personalized touch to data presentation and analysis. It brings clarity and professionalism to the worksheet.

To change the default font size in Excel, you can use the Excel Options dialog box.

Remember that once you choose a new default font size, restart Excel for the changes to take effect. After restarting, the new default font size will only be applied to newly created workbooks. Any existing workbooks will remain unchanged.

To change the default font size in Excel:

1. Go to the File tab.
   
2. Click on Options.
   The Excel Options dialog box will appear.
3. Go to the General tab > When creating new workbooks group > Font Size drop-down.
4. Select a font size.
   Or write your preferred font size in the Font size box.
5. Click on OK.
   A warning message will appear.
6. Click on OK.
   
7. Restart Excel and open a new workbook.

Thus, you can change the default font size in Excel.

Changing Font Size of Selected Cells in Excel

To visually differentiate data, you can change the font size of the selected cells in Excel using the Font group from the Home tab, Cell Styles feature, or VBA.

Here are the 4 simple ways to change the font size of the selected cells in Excel:

Use Font Size Option from Home Tab

To change the font size in Excel, navigate to the Home tab and use the Font Size option. This allows you to enhance visibility and quick adjustments in your worksheet. Follow the steps:

1. Select a range of cells.
2. Go to the Home tab > Font group > Font Size drop-down.
   
3. Select a font size.
   

Thus, you can change the font size of the selected cells in Excel.

Alternatively, you can click on the Increase Font Size and Decrease Font Size options to change the font size.

Read More: How to Change Font in Excel to All Caps

Use Shortcut Key

You can change the font size in Excel easily with shortcut keys for a smoother workflow. The increase or decrease of the font size happens according to the default parameter.

Follow the steps to change the font size with the shortcut keys:

1. Select a range of cells.
   
2. Now, press the Alt + H keys.
   A lot of keyboard combinations will appear.
3. Press the F and G keys sequentially to increase your font size.
   Or, press the F and K keys sequentially to decrease your font size

Thus, you can change the font size in Excel.

You can make the font size custom in Excel too. To get a custom-size font with a keyboard shortcut:

1. Select the range.
2. Press Alt+H, F, S to access the Font Size option for editing.
3. Insert the custom font size.
   
4. Press Enter.

Thus, you can have a custom-size font for the selected cells.

Read More: How to Increase Font Size Using Keyboard in Excel

Using Cell Style

Changing font size with the Cell Styles option affects empty cells. It won’t modify cells with existing data.

Follow the steps to change the font size with Cell Styles:

1. Select a range of cells.
   
2. Go to the Home tab > Styles group > Cell Styles feature > Normal.
3. Right-click on the mouse.
4. Then, select the Modify option.
   The Style dialog box will appear.
5. Click on Format.
   The Format Cells dialog box will appear.
6. Select a font size and click OK.
   
7. Click OK again from the Style dialog box.
   

Finally, you have changed the font size of the selected cells.

Read More: How to Change Font Style in Excel

Using VBA

You can use a simple VBA code to create two pairs of shortcut keys according to your choice for increasing or decreasing the font size.

To change the font size in Excel with VBA:

1. Select a cell or a range of cells.
2. Go to the Developer tab > Code group > Visual Basic to open Visual Basic Editor.
   
3. Go to the Insert tab > Module.
   
4. Copy and Paste the following VBA code:

   Sub FontIncreaser()
   Selection.Font.Size = Selection.Font.Size + 1
   End Sub
   Sub FontDecreaser()
   Selection.Font.Size = Selection.Font.Size - 1
   End Sub

5. Close the Visual Basic Editor window.
6. Click on Developer > Macros.
   The Macro dialog box will appear with function names, which in this case are FontDecreaser & FontIncreaser.
7. Select a function from Macro Name to decrease the font size.
   In this case, FontDecreaser.
8. Click on Options…
   
9. Create your shortcut key in the Shortcut key section to decrease the font size.
   We have chosen Ctrl+s as our shortcut key to decrease the value. You can choose any alphabet if you wish.
10. Click OK.
    
11. Again, select a function from Macro Name to increase the font size.
    Here, we select FontIncreaser.
12. Press the Options button.
    
13. Set another shortcut key to increase the font size.
    To increase the font size, we chose Ctrl+b as our shortcut key. Again, you can choose any alphabet if you wish.
14. Press OK.
    
15. Now, choose the range for which you want to change the font.
16. Press the customized shortcut keys to decrease or increase your font size.
    

Download Practice Workbook

You can download the workbook and practice the dataset by yourself.

Conclusion

In this article, you’ve learned how to change font size in Excel, whether it’s the default or for selected cells. The Font Group in the Home Tab gives you a simple way to adjust sizes with just a few clicks. To save time with large datasets, you can use shortcut keys for a quick change. The Cell Styles option provides the flexibility to set a font size as a template. For more advanced users, VBA code allows automation of font size changes across multiple cells. These methods offer you a variety of choices, letting you customize your Excel sheets exactly how you want them, making your data stand out and look professional. If you have any questions or opinions, feel free to share them in the comments section below.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to increase font size in Excel for printing?

To increase the font size in Excel for printing, use the Page Setup dialog box. It will increase the page scaling. Follow the steps:

1. Go to the File tab > Print > No Scaling.
2. Select Custom Scaling Options.
   A Page Setup window will appear. In the scaling option, the default size is 100%, meaning the printed font size matches the size in Excel.
3. Now to change from its default mood, enter 130% for instance.
   Thus, your printed image will be 1.3 times higher than the previous version.
4. Press OK.

Does changing font size in selected cells affect the existing Excel Workbook?

If you change the font size of the selected cells in the Cell Styles option, it will change the font size of the selected cells. It won’t affect the cells containing data but it will modify the blank cells.

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