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# Tip of the Week: Formatting Shortcuts for Excel
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[LSeven Solutions Admin](https://www.l7solutions.com/blog/blogger/l7-admin)
Wednesday, 05 June 2019
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Microsoft Excel has a lot of moving parts… assuming you know how to move them, of course. For this week’s tip, we’re going over a few shortcuts to help you make the best use of some of these parts.
## Align
Perhaps the most basic Excel formatting of all, it can help to distinguish between your data to have different values aligned to the cell in different ways. Of course, there are keyboard shortcuts for each.
- To **center** the value within the cell, press **Alt+H+A+C**.
- To align the value within the cell to the **left**, press **Alt+H+A+L**.
- To align the value within the cell to the **right**, press **Alt+H+A+R**.
## Specific Formatting
Oftentimes, the contents of your spreadsheet will require certain formatting in order to properly communicate their significance. You can assign this formatting for different data types with the following shortcuts:
- To return your value to general formatting, press **Ctrl+Shift+~**.
- To indicate that a value refers to currency, press **Ctrl+Shift+$**.
- To format a value as a percentage, press **Ctrl+Shift+%**.
- To properly format a date, press **Ctrl+Shift+#**.
- To format a value in scientific terms, press **Ctrl+Shift+^**.
- To ensure that a number is properly formatted, press **Ctrl+Shift+!**.
- To properly format time, press **Ctrl+Shift+@**.
## Applying Borders
Borders can come in handy on a spreadsheet, as they give the differences between values more pronunciation. Use the following shortcuts to apply borders to a selected cell:
- To cut to the chase and apply a border to all of a cell’s edges, press **Ctrl+Shift+A**.
- To only add a borderline to the right edge of a cell, press **Alt+R**.
- To add a border to the left edge of a cell, press **Alt+L**.
- To put a border on the top edge of a cell, press **Alt+T**.
- To apply a border to the bottom edge of a cell, press **Alt+B**.
- To easily remove the borders from a cell, press **Ctrl+Shift+\_**.
## Appearance
Okay, maybe this is the most basic Excel formatting, as these formatting needs can appear in essentially every Microsoft document you create, including your spreadsheets. These shortcuts should seem very familiar:
- To have your data appear in a **bold font**, press **Ctrl+B**.
- To type in italics, press **Ctrl+I**.
- To underline the contents of a cell, press **Ctrl+U**.
- To strikethrough the contents of a cell, press **Ctrl+S**.
We hope that this list comes in handy. We suggest printing it out so it can be easily accessible when needed. Are there any other programs that you’d like to know more shortcuts to? Leave a few suggestions in the comments!
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Welcome to LSeven's Blog! Here we will share useful tips and tricks for Computers and Information on Our IT Services!
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