Gobe Productive User's Guide - Formatting Cells

- Working in the spreadsheet environment
- Formatting cells
- Row & column sizes
- Number formats
- Insert, Delete, Move & Go to Cells
- Locking cells
- Filling cells
- Sorting cells
- Calculating cells & Dependent cells
- Formulas & functions
- Function reference
- Creating a chart
- Working with charts
- Styles
- Named selections
- Display options
- Spell checking
- Writing tools
- Views & layers
- Working with spreadsheet frames

# Formatting Cells

Cell formatting works very similarly to text or graphic formatting. The only difference is how borders are formatted. The pen formatting feature has no effect in the spreadsheet environment. Rather, a special border tool is used to color the lines around cells.

Cells in a spreadsheet have four formatting options. Click on any link below to jump to that topic.

Cell Text Formatting | The font, size, and color for the text in the cell. Includes the topics: Format Cell Text and Clearing Cell Formatting and Text
Cell Text Alignment | The horizontal and vertical alignment of the text in a cell.
Cell Fill | The background color for a cell.
Cell Borders | The color of a cell's border.

## Cell Text Formatting

Cell text formatting refers to the text and numbers inside cells. You have to select the cells you want to format before applying any properties.

### To Format Cell Text

1. Select the cells you wish to format. Only selected cells are formatted.
2. Use the tools on the PartBar to set the text formats:

Use... | To...
| Text Font Tool: This tool sets the text font. Click the tool and choose the font you wish to use from the drop-down list. The image to the left displays the default font for new text.
| Text Size Tool: This tool sets the size of the selected text. Click the tool and select the size you want. Select Other... to enter a size not displayed on the drop-down list. Enter the text size, in points, that you want. The default text size is displayed on the image to the left.
| Text Face Tool: This tool sets the format for the selected text (bold, italic, underline, etc).

Text Color tool

Text Color tool menu bar

Text Color Tool: This tool sets the color of the selected text. Click the tool to display a menu bar. The menu bar contains the following color choices:

| Color: Position the cursor over the tab, then select the color you want from the palette. The palette displays the currently active color set. To display other sets, see the Ink Sets topic for more information. The colors on the palette can be customized. See the Customizing Inks topic in the Graphics section for more information.
| Pattern: Position the cursor over the tab, then select the pattern or texture you want from the palette. The palette displays the current set of patterns or textures. To display other sets (including the texture set), see the Ink Sets topic for more information. The patterns or textures on the palette can be customized. See the Customizing Inks topic in the Graphics section for more information.
| Gradient: Position the cursor over the tab, then select the gradient you want from the palette. The palette displays the current set of gradients. To display other sets, see the Ink Sets topic for more information. The gradients on this palette can be customized. See the Customizing Inks topic in the Graphics section for more information.
| Transparency: Position the cursor over the tab, then select the opacity or transparency of the text. 100% represents full opacity, 0% denotes total transparency. A transparent fill makes whatever items are behind the item show through. An opaque fill is whatever color, gradient, or pattern you chose. See the Transparency topic in the Graphics section for more information.

- All of these tools can be torn-off. The font, text size, and text type tools tear-off to create the text palette (image below). See the Tear-off Tools topic for more information about how to tear-off a tool.
- The text color tool tears-off to display a floating text-color palette (image below). Tearing-off the tool is very useful if you are making a lot of changes to the text. The tear-off palette stays open on the workspace as you work.
  You can customize the solid colors, patterns, and gradients used in this palette. See the topic Customizing Inks in the Graphics section for more information. To display other sets, see the Ink Sets topic in the Graphics section for more information.

### Clearing Cell Formatting and Text

When clearing spreadsheet cells that have been formatted, you have several options: you can clear the text/number only, clear the formatting only, or clear both the text and format.

First select the cells you wish to clear, and then, depending on how you wish to clear the cell(s), follow these steps:

- If you wish to clear only the text or number within the cell(s): Select Clear from the Edit menu.

- If you wish to clear only the formatting of the cell(s) and leave the text/number: Select Clear from the Edit menu while holding down the [SHIFT] key. For example, you have text in a cell that you have underlined and colored red. This action removes the underline and returns the text color to the default black.

- If you wish to clear both text/number and its formatting from the spreadsheet cell(s): Select Clear from the Edit menu while holding down the [CMD] or [ALT] key.

## Cell Text Alignment

Text in cells have seven alignment choices. These choices are selected from two alignment tools on the Spreadsheet PartBar.

Use... | To...

Horizontal Alignment Tool: This tool sets the horizontal alignment for the cell text. Select the cells you want to format, then select the alignment you wish to use from the tool.

| General | Text is left aligned and numbers are right aligned.
Align Left | All cell content is aligned to the left side of the cell.
Align Center | All cell content is aligned to the center of the cell.
Align Right | All cell content is aligned to the right side of the cell
Wrap Text | If you enter data that is longer than the cell's width, select this option to wrap the text and keep the cell's original width

Vertical Alignment Tool: This tools sets the vertical (up & down) alignment for the cell contents. Select the cells you want to format, then select the alignment you wish to use from the tool.

| Align Top | All cell content is aligned to the top of the cell.
Align Center | All cell content is centered vertically in the cell.
Align Bottom | All cell content is aligned to the bottom of the cell.

## Cell Fill

Cell fill refers to the color of the cell's background. The fill tool on the FormatBar is used for format the cell fill. You can also tear-off the fill tool. See the Tear-Off Tools topic for more information about tearing off tools.

### To Format the Cell Fill

1. Select the item you wish to format.
2. From the FormatBar, use the following buttons to format the fill. You can also use the tear-off formatting palette if it is displayed.

Use | To...

Fill Color tool

Fill Color tool menu bar

Fill Color Tool: This tool sets the color (or fill) of the selected item. Click the tool to display a menu bar. The menu bar contains the following color choices:

| Color. Position the cursor over the tab, then select the color you want from the palette. The palette displays the currently active color set. To display other sets, see the Ink Sets topic for more information. The colors on the palette can be customized. See the Customizing Inks topic for more information.
| Pattern: Position the cursor over the tab, then select the pattern or texture you want from the palette. The palette displays the current set of patterns or textures. To display other sets (including the texture set), see the Ink Sets topic for more information. The patterns or textures on the palette can be customized. See the Customizing Inks topic for more information.
| Gradient: Position the cursor over the tab, then select the gradient you want from the palette. The palette displays the current set of gradients. To display other sets, see the Ink Sets topic for more information. The gradients on this palette can be customized. See the Customizing Inks topic for more information.
| Transparency: Position the cursor over the tab, then select the opacity or transparency of the fill. 100% represents full opacity, 0% denotes total transparency. A transparent fill makes whatever items are behind the item show through. An opaque fill is whatever color, gradient, or pattern you chose. For cells, you probably want to keep this set to opaque, unless you want a background image or pattern to show through a spreadsheet frame. See the Transparency topic for more information.

## Cell Borders

The spreadsheet environment contains special tools for setting the color of the borders around cells.

1. Select the cells to format. Only the cells selected are formatted.
2. Use the cell border tools to set the border color.

Use | To...

Border tools

Example border tab menu

Border Tools: Each tool sets a different border for the selected cells.

| Box: Places a colored box around the block of selected cells.
| Left: Places a a border on the left side of the selected cells.
| Top: Places a a border on the top of the selected cells.
| Right: Places a a border on the right side of the selected cells.
| Bottom: Places a a border on the bottom of the selected cells.

Click the border tool for the border you want to set. Each tool displays the same tab menu. The tab menu contains the following choices:

| Color. Position the cursor over the tab, then select the color you want to use for the cell border from the palette. The palette displays the currently active color set. To display other sets, see the Ink Sets topic for more information. The colors on the palette can be customized. See the Customizing Inks topic for more information.
| Transparency: Position the cursor over the tab, then select the opacity or transparency of the border. 100% represents full opacity, 0% denotes total transparency. A transparent border makes whatever items are behind the cell border show through. An opaque fill is whatever color you chose. For cells, you probably want to keep this set to opaque, unless you want a background image or pattern to show through the borders around cells in a spreadsheet frame.. See the Transparency topic for more information.

Copyright © 1999, Gobe Software, Inc