It’s really important to take into account the formatting of your spreadsheet. My rule of thumb is ‘keep it simple’. Lots of people spend lots of time formatting their spreadsheets, and it can be actually be at the expense of the efficiency of the spreadsheet.

Yes make it easy to read and follow,but do not over format and this adds bulk and size to your workbooks, it might look nice and have bells and whistles- to you, but to others it can be overkill , look dreadful and be very inefficient in its workings.

Here’s a few great tips to give you the edge on formatting in a simple easy way.

In Excel by default, text is aligned to the left, and numbers to the right, this is what Excel expects. This can be really useful if you are having issues with a formula or referencing of cells. Sometimes it very confusing to reference cells that look like numbers but are actually text. If you leave the default alighment, it is easier to tell at a glance.

So, format cells as text rather than numeric only if you really have to, as all of the data you enter into a text formatted cell becomes text, even if you meant it to be numeric, this is one thing you do not want- any formula cells to be formatted as text.

Another real problem for Excel I have come across is the merging of cells. This can create lots of issues for Excel, and a good way to get around this for formatting is to use Centre Across Selection. you can easily find this using the following – Format | Cells | Alignment | Horizontal | Center Across Selection.

Try it as an alternative to merging cells.