In most cases, the number formats that are accessible from the Number group on the Home tab are just fine. Sometimes, however, you want more control over how your values appear. Excel offers a great deal of control over number formats through the use of the Format Cells dialog box, shown in Figure 13-10. For formatting numbers, you need to use the Number tab.

You can bring up the Format Cells dialog box in several ways. Start by selecting the cell or cells that you want to format and then do the following:

• Choose Home?Number and click the small Dialog Box Launcher icon.
• Choose Home?Number, click the Number Format drop-down list, and select More Number Formats from the drop-down list.
• Right-click and choose Format Cells from the shortcut menu.
• Press the Ctrl+1 shortcut key.

The Number tab of the Format Cells dialog box displays 12 categories of number formats from which to choose. When you select a category from the list box, the right side of the tab changes to display the appropriate options.

FIGURE 13-10
When you need more control over number formats, use the Number tab of the Format Cells dialog box.

The Number category has three options that you can control: the number of decimal places displayed, whether to use a thousand separator, and how you want negative numbers displayed. Notice that the Negative Numbers list box has four choices (two of which display negative values in red), and the choices change depending on the number of decimal places and whether you choose to separate thousands.

The top of the tab displays a sample of how the active cell will appear with the selected number format (visible only if a cell with a value is selected). After you make your choices, click OK to apply the number format to all the selected cells.

The following are the number-format categories, along with some general comments:

• General: The default format; it displays numbers as integers, as decimals, or in scientific notation if the value is too wide to fit in the cell.
• Number: Enables you to specify the number of decimal places, whether to use a comma to separate thousands, and how to display negative numbers (with a minus sign, in red, in parentheses, or in red and in parentheses).
• Currency: Enables you to specify the number of decimal places, whether to use a currency symbol, and how to display negative numbers (with a minus sign, in red, in parentheses, or in red and in parentheses). This format always uses a comma to separate thousands.
• Accounting: Differs from the Currency format in that the currency symbols always line up vertically.
• Date: Enables you to choose from several different date formats.
• Time: Enables you to choose from several different time formats.
• Percentage: Enables you to choose the number of decimal places and always displays a percent sign.
• Fraction: Enables you to choose from among nine fraction formats.
• Scientific: Displays numbers in exponential notation (with an E): 2.00E+05 = 200,000; 2.05E+05 = 205,000. You can choose the number of decimal places to display to the left of E.
• Text: When applied to a value, causes Excel to treat the value as text (even if it looks like a number). This feature is useful for such items as part numbers.
• Special: Contains four additional number formats (Zip Code, Zip Code +4, Phone Number, and Social Security Number).
• Custom: Enables you to define custom number formats that aren’t included in any other category.

If a cell displays a series of pound signs (such as #########), it usually means that the column isn’t wide enough to display the value in the number format that you selected. Either make the column wider or change the number format.

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