Excel Lesson 1: Part 4 (Data Types & Formatting)
Please Note: This session builds on, and assumes that you have completed, the previous Excel sessions. If that is not the case, please go back and complete them before returning to this session.
STEP 1: Getting Started
Launch Excel and create a new blank Workbook or open up an existing Workbook.
STEP 2: Selecting Data Types
I have opened the Car Sales spreadsheet from the last session and added a third new Worksheet to it.
I then entered the following data. It is important to differentiate between the value of the data and the data type. In this first screenshot the value is 14/12/2020 and because I know this column will hold dates of sale, the data type of the column is ‘Date’.
We will now examine the data types of the remaining columns:
[This choice of ‘Text’ for a number will be explained later]
[All seven columns are of ‘General’ data type]
The full list of Excel data types is below (click here). Click ‘More Number Formats’ for more options.
STEP 3: Formatting Numbers
Data types matter because they directly affect the format and layout of the data stored in a given column. This is especially true for numbers. To demonstrate this, we will focus on the ‘Transaction#’ column. It is currently set as TEXT data type:
In Excel, this data type is defined as:
Notice that the current value in this column starts with a zero (0). We want to keep that leading zero – hence the use of TEXT data type.
Watch what happens when we try other data types:
We lose the leading zero. Not good.
We lose the leading zero and gain two decimal places. Not good.
So, picking the right data type is key for numerical data.
If we look at the ‘Retail Price’ column we can see that it uses the CURRENCY data type – which gives us the correct format.
But if we change it to NUMBER we lose the currency sign (£ here).
The following screenshots, taken directly from Excel, give a little more background information on numerical data types and formats.
STEP 4: Formatting Dates
The ‘Date of Sale’ column is currently a DATE data type. It works fine.
Dates can have a lot of different, but equally valid, formats. Here we will show a few others.
LONG DATE does what it says – as shown here. SHORT DATE shows the original format.
By far the best way to format your dates is to use the data type drop-down box that we have used many times and then select the ‘More Number Formats’ option:
This will bring up the familiar box shown below, from where you can select a range of Date formats.
Select the highlighted format and click ‘OK’ to get:
Just experiment.
STEP 5: Formatting Times
The demonstrate time-formatting we will use the ‘Time of Sale’ column.
Again, look in the box below and experiment with different styles of time formats:
We can now change this layout.
Select the highlighted format and click ‘OK’ to get:
Again, just experiment.
STEP 6: Formatting Text
Finally, we look at formatting basic text. We use the ‘Dealership’ column this time.
When dealing with textual data, Excel is essentially the same as Microsoft Word – it allows you to make it bold, italics, underlined, justified (right, left and centred), change font style and font size, plus set background colours and shadings.
All these options are on the top menu bar under the HOME menu option.
A useful additional feature can be found under the drop-down menu option we seen many times:
You can lock/secure individual cells:
To end this session, we will apply some of these text-formatting techniques to the ‘Dealership’ column.
That completes this session.
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