In this article, we will show you all the features and benefits of cell styles in Excel. Particularly the default cell styles that enhance the visual appearance of spreadsheets. In Excel, cell styles offer a wide range of professionally designed formats, such as heading styles, data tables, and highlight colors. It enables you to quickly and effortlessly apply a uniform look to your worksheets. Therefore, it is easier to highlight important information, create consistency, and improve the overall presentation of your data.
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What Is Cell Styles in Excel?
In simple terms, Cell Styles in Excel are a collection of pre-defined formatting options that allow you to quickly apply consistent and visually appealing formats to cells and data in your worksheets. These styles include various font, border, and background formatting combinations that help you create professional-looking spreadsheets with ease.
Whether you need to create reports, charts, or financial statements, Cell Styles in Excel provides a convenient way to elevate the presentation and effectiveness of your work.
How to Apply Cell Styles in Excel: 5 Useful Applications
You can easily access Cell Styles from the Home tab under the Styles group, where you’ll find a variety of pre-defined styles categorized into five options. You can select or apply any cell style depending on your purpose and dataset.
Professionals across various fields, including finance, accounting, project management, and data analysis, often rely on Cell Styles to create visually appealing and well-organized spreadsheets.
1. Use of Good, Bad, and Neutral Cell Styles
These styles provide visual cues to highlight positive, negative, and neutral data values, making it easier to identify trends and patterns in your data.
In the image provided above, we have highlighted the cells that represent good sales and bad sales. The use of cell styles allows us to visually distinguish between different data points, making it easier to identify important information at a glance.
2. Application of Data and Model Styles
These styles offer distinct formats for input data and calculated results, making it easier to distinguish between original data and formula-based outputs. Furthermore, You can use different font colors, bold or italic formatting, and background shading to distinguish key information, and notes, making your spreadsheet more informative and engaging.
3. Employing Titles and Headings Cell Styles in Excel
Excel offers specific Cell Styles for titles and headings, enabling you to create a professional and structured layout for your worksheets. By applying these styles to your headers, you can enhance readability and navigation within your workbook. Moreover, using “Titles and Headings” styles, you can make your headers stand out with bold fonts and colors, giving your worksheet a professional and structured look.
In this example, we applied the Heading1 cell style to the title of the table, the Heading2 cell style to the column heading, and the Heading3 cell style to the row heading. Additionally, we used the Total cell style for normal data within the table.
4. Using Themed Cell Styles
These themed cell styles offer a wide range of options to apply consistent formatting to your dataset. Significantly, it offers varied accent options, ranging from subtle to prominent, allowing you to choose the desired visual impact. Mainly, these styles give a dataset or report a visual clarity and professional outlook that is also quite easy to use.
Professionals from various sectors can benefit from themed cell styles. Marketers, Finance professionals, Data analysts, and Project Managers often use these styles to create visually appealing dashboards, trends, and reports.
5. Application of Number Format
Using this format, you can quickly apply various number formats to your data, such as currency and percentage. This helps you present numeric information in a clear and consistent manner, aligning with professional standards and improving data interpretation.
How to Create Custom Cell Styles in Excel
Excel provides the flexibility for users to create custom cell styles, promoting creativity and meeting specific needs. To create a custom cell style, go to the home tab, select Cell Styles from the style group, and choose New Cell Style.
In the Style window, give the style a name, such as Custom Style 1, and choose its elements, such as number format, font, and borders. Then, go to the format option to customize its elements.
Use the format cell window for further customization and observe changes in the preview or sample panel. For example, we can demonstrate this with a fill color such as “Gold Lighter 80%“. Finally, press OK to save.
After creating the style, you can easily apply it to selected cells using the Cell Styles option from the Home tab.
How to Modify Existing Cell Styles in Excel
In Excel, you have the option to modify both existing built-in cell styles and any custom cell styles you have created. To do this, go to the home tab, select Cell Styles from the styles group, and right-click on the desired style from the drop-down menu. Choose “Modify…” to access the style window. For example, we have selected the Good Cell styles to modify.
From the style window, you can select style elements and make necessary modifications using the format tab.
Furthermore, the Format Cells window allows you to make modifications and preview changes. Click OK to save the changes.
How to Merge or Export Cell Styles From One Workbook to Another
Since the custom cell styles exist only in the workbook where they were created, it is a bit challenging to use the same styles in other workbooks. However, there is a way to merge or export custom cell styles from one workbook to another. By following these steps, you can achieve consistency in style across your various workbooks.
Open the new workbook where you want to apply the custom cell styles. Next, go to the Home tab and click on Cell Styles. From the Cell Styles option, select “Merge Styles…”
In the Merge Styles window, choose the source workbook (e.g., cell styles in Excel.xlsx) and click OK.
All the custom cell styles will now be available in the active workbook. By following these steps, you can easily merge or export custom cell styles from one workbook to another.
How to Remove or Delete Predefined or Custom Cell Styles From Data
If you want to remove default or custom cell styles in Excel, follow these steps:
Once again, go to the Home tab and navigate to the Styles group. Likewise, click on Cell Styles to open its options. Right-click on the cell style you want to remove and select Delete. The cell style will be instantly deleted from the workbook.
If you want to remove the cell style only from the dataset (not from the entire workbook), select the data range and go to the Home tab.
Now, from the Editing group, choose the Clear option, and then select Clear Formats from the drop-down menu. This will remove any cell style applied to the data and revert it to the default formatting.
Things To Remember
- Custom Cell Styles Names: Remember to give descriptive names to your custom styles for easy identification.
- Workbook-Specific: Custom cell styles are specific to the workbook where they were created. If you want to use them in another workbook, you need to merge or export them.
- Auto Update Styles: Keep in mind that cell styles are dynamic. Whenever you modify a cell style, it will automatically update all cells using that style throughout the workbook.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What are the benefits of cell styles in Excel?
Cell styles help maintain consistency, improve readability, save time on formatting, and make it easier to create professional-looking spreadsheets.
Q2. What is the default cell style in Excel?
The default cell style in Excel is the Normal, which applies standard formatting to all cells.
Q3. What is the difference between styles and templates?
Styles are sets of formatting options that you can apply to cells or documents, while templates are pre-designed files that contain formatting, layout, and content to create new documents quickly.
Conclusion
In short, Cell styles in Excel offer users a wide range of benefits in a professional context. Consistent in formatting, effective visual organization, efficiency in time management, improved visual clarity, and easy identification of key information.
Overall from financial reports to marketing materials, they empower users to create visually compelling and well-structured spreadsheets. Flexibility and ease of use make cell styles invaluable in Excel.
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Cell styles in Excel: Knowledge Hub
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I need to know how to keep the cell styles on the ribbon visible without having to use the “Cell Styles” button and clicking on the style I need.
I only need the green, red, neutral (gray), and amber to be showing and it is a waste of time having to click on the “Cell Styles” button all the time.
The worksheet is fully expanded.
That is how I usually got them back when they were missing.
But now, that does not work.
Dear KAREN CAYANAS,
Thanks for reaching out to us with your problem.
This problem occurs when you do not have enough view area on the monitor. While there is no particular fix to your problem, if you want to keep the cell styles in the Ribbon, you may consider removing some unnecessary groups from the Home tab.
To do so follow these steps:
1. Right-click on the empty area of the Ribbon.
2. Select “Customize the Ribbon“.
3. From the Home tab dropdown, select and remove unnecessary groups one by one.
4. Click on OK to finish the process.
After removing the groups, cell styles will be visible without the “Cell Styles” drop-down if there is enough room in the Ribbon.
Regards,
Exceldemy