To differentiate between types of numbers, you can apply a corresponding format to them. There are the following formats available:
- Common - no formatting applied
- Currency - a format to display a number as currency ($)
- Number - a format to display a number with delimited tens, hundreds and thousands
- Percent - a format to display a number as percentage (%)
To apply some of the default number formats to a cell value:
1) Select a cell or a range of cells to format.
2) Click the Number format button in the Number section to open a drop-down list with number formats:
3) Choose the necessary format that will be applied to the selected cells:
You can customize the predefined formats in the following ways:
- define the number of decimal places
- show or hide group separators (for the Currency and Number formats)
- define the styling of negative values
To customize a predefined number format:
1) Select a cell or a range of cells to apply custom format to.
2) Click the Number format button in the Number section and select the Custom option:
3) Select Currency, Number or Percent:
4) Define settings for the chosen format and click Save.
To increase/decrease decimal places:
1) Select the necessary cell with a decimal number value.
2) Click the corresponding button - Increase decimal places or Decrease decimal places in the Number section:
If you feel limited by the embedded number formats, you can create your own format.
To set a custom format to cell values:
1) Select a cell or a range of cells to apply a custom format to.
2) Click the Number format button in the Number section and select the Custom option:
3) In the appeared popup:
- Specify a custom format pattern and press Enter or click outside the input to preview result.
- Click Save to apply the specified format pattern to the cell/cells value(s).
A custom format may consist of several code sections, separated by semicolons (;). Each code section can include:
- [condition] in square brackets - e.g. [>1000], to compare the cell value with
- [color] in square brackets - e.g. [blue]
- format as a set of zeros (e.g. 0.0;)
- text - e.g. Text, that should be displayed in this cell (in "" to make sure it will be interpreted as text)
If there are both the condition and the color sections, the condition must go first.
For example:
[>1000][red];[>100][green]0.0;[blue] "Small"
In the spreadsheet below:
The following custom format patterns are applied:
- For the cells B2-C2: [>1000]> 0.0;[>100][orange]Check 0,000.0#
- For the cell B3-D3: [>1000][red];[>700][green]0.0;[blue]"Small"
The code sections of the custom number format are set according to the rules given below:
1) Conditions
To apply a format to a number only if it meets the specified condition, specify a condition inside of square brackets. It should contain a comparison operator and a value:
[>1000]> 0.0;
2) Format
To apply a particular custom number format to the value of a formatted cell, define the format as a set of zeros (e.g. 0.0;) which:
- are separated by decimal or thousand separators
- have additional 0 after the separator to display insignificant zeros or # to ignore them
[>100]0,000.00
3) Colors
To specify some color for a section of the format, type the name of one of the available colors (green, red, blue, orange, black, violet or magenta) enclosed in square brackets in the section. The color code must be the second item in the section (after the condition).
[>1000][red];[>100][green]0.0;
4) Text
In case you need to add text into some section, you can type it as it is. The only requirement is that text should go last in a section, like this:
[>1000][red];[>100][green]0.0;[blue] "Small"
- 0 (zero) - the digit placeholder to display insignificant zeros, if a number has fewer digits than there are zeros in the format. For example, to display 4 as 4.0, use the format 0.0.
- # - the digit placeholder to display only significant numbers (not to display extra zeros when a number has fewer digits than there are # symbols in the format).
- ? - works the same as 0 (zero), but adds a space for insignificant zeros on either side of the decimal point so that decimal points are aligned in the column.
The decimal and thousands separators are taken from the applied locale. By default they are:
- . (period) - the digit placeholder to display the decimal point in a number.
- , (comma) - the digit placeholder to display the thousands separator in a number.
You can discard the applied formatting in two ways:
1) Select necessary formatted cell/cells.
2) Click the Clear button in the Edit section of the toolbar.
3) Select the Clear styles option in the drop-down list.
Or:
1) Select necessary formatted cell/cells.
2) Right-click the necessary cell/cells to call the context menu.
3) Select Clear->Styles.
