Create Borders and Shading in Excel
with
Don Schechter
Borders and shading add aesthetic presentation to your spreadsheet data. See how to create borders and shading in Excel.
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Transcript: Create Borders and Shading in Excel
Hi, I'm Don Schechter for About.com Computing. Today I'll show you how to create borders and use shading in Microsoft Excel.Preview the Excel Data
Open Microsoft Excel. I want to add borders and shading to help with the aesthetic presentation of my data. If I got up to 'File' and click on 'print preview,' you can see how it will look printed. Without lines or borders, the data looks a bit jumbled. Let's see what we can do to help this. Close the print preview window.Select Cells to Format
First I'll select just the list of names in the left column. Right click and choose 'format cells.' Select the border tab at the top of the window. Here you can see different line styles and thicknesses. I'll choose the normal thickness.Format the Right Side Border
Now I need to choose where I want that line to be. I'll click on just the right hand side of the cells. You can see that you can choose any side of the cell to apply a border. You can even choose a line on the interior walls of a cell or a 45 degree angle going in both directions.I can also remove all the borders with one click up here. Or add borders to the entire outside of the cells or the insides of the cells. You also can change the color of the lines using the drop down menu. For now I'll leave the lines as black. Click 'ok.'
Format Top Row Borders
For the top row titles, I want to add a line to separate them from the data. I will select them first and go to the format icon on the toolbar. Here I can choose what side of the cell for the border. I'll click the line on the bottom of the cell.Add Shading to the Worksheet
I want to add some color shading to my worksheet. Click and drag to highlight the range of cells to shade. I will select the top row titles and while holding the control key I will also select the left column. Up in the toolbar go to 'format' and click 'cells.' Select the pattern tab, and here you can change the color of the cells.I'll choose a light cyan color and click ok. Another way to format the cell shading is to use the paint bucket tool at the top. Just select your range and click on the paint bucket to select the color.
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