MULTI IN ONE: How to Centre Text and Numbers

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You saw that by clicking inside of a cell it makes it active, so that you can make changes. We want to centre all our numbers and the text. Here's the spreadsheet we have:</div>
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<img alt="A Simple Excel 2007 Spreadsheet" border="1" height="145" src="http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/excel2007/images/ChangeColumnWidth4.gif" width="239" /></div>
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So we need cells A1, A2, A3 and A4 to be active. In Excel, you can do this by highlighting the cells.</div>
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<li>Place your mouse over cell A1</li>
<li>Your pointer should now be in the shape of a white cross</li>
<li>When your pointer changes to the white cross, hold your left mouse button down and drag to cell A4</li>
<li>Let go of the left mouse button when cells A1, A2, A3 and A4 are highlighted</li>
<li>The image below shows what you are aiming for</li>
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<img alt="The cells A1 to A4 have been highlighted" border="1" height="146" src="http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/excel2007/images/selectNumbers.gif" width="393" /></div>
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The cells highlighted in the image above have a different colour to the normal white colour of a cell. When you highlight cells, you can do things to all the cells as a group.</div>
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To centre the text and numbers in our highlighted cells, try this:</div>
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<li>From the Excel Ribbon at the top of the screen, locate the <b>Alignment</b> panel. Here's the Alignment panel in Excel 2007:</li>
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<img alt="Excel 2007 Alignment Panel" height="88" src="http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/excel2007/images/alignment.gif" width="274" /></div>
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And here it is in Excel 2010 and 2013:</div>
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<img alt="The Alignment panel in Excel 2010 and 2013" height="91" src="http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/excel2007/images/2013/section1/alignment_panel.gif" width="261" /></div>
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You can see the various alignment options laid out. These ones:</div>
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<img alt="Alignment Options" height="55" src="http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/excel2007/images/alignment2.gif" width="75" /></div>
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Hold your mouse over each alignment icon and you'll see an explanation of what they do. Click each icon and see what they do to your highlighted cells.</div>
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You can also click the arrow in the bottom right of the Alignment panel to bring up the Format Cells box (the one circled below).</div>
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<img alt="Click the arrow in the bottom right" height="88" src="http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/excel2007/images/alignment3.gif" width="274" /></div>
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When you click the arrow, you'll see this dialogue box:</div>
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<img alt="The Format Cells dialogue box in Excel 2007" height="466" src="http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/excel2007/images/FormatCells.gif" width="548" /></div>
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Notice the Text Alignment section at the top of the Alignment tab. It has two drop down menus, one for <b>Horizontal</b> alignment and one for <b>Vertical</b> alignment.</div>
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<li>Click the arrow on the Horizontal drop down menu, the one with Left (Indent) on it</li>
<li>You'll see the following:</li>
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<img alt="Horizontal alignment in Excel 2007" height="143" src="http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/excel2007/images/alignment4.gif" width="146" /></div>
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As you can see, you have plenty of options to choose from in Excel. But click on <b>Center</b>. Do the same for the <b>Vertical</b> drop down menu. Then click OK at the bottom of the Format Cells dialogue box.</div>
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The text and numbers in cells A1, A2, A3 and A4 should now be centred, and your spreadsheet will look like the one below:</div>
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<img alt="The text and numbers are now centred" border="1" height="161" src="http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/excel2007/images/alignment5.gif" width="265" /></div>
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Before moving on to other types of formatting you can do in Excel, have a try of this:</div>
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<li>Highlight the cells A5 and A6 on your spreadsheet</li>
<li>Bring up the Format Cells dialogue box, just as you did above</li>
<li>Make the alignment changes from the Horizontal and Vertical drop down menus</li>
<li>Click OK to get rid of the dialogue box</li>
<li>Now click inside of cell A5 on your spreadsheet and enter any number you like</li>
<li>Hit the Enter key</li>
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The number you just entered should also be centred. So even if a cell is empty you can still apply formatting to it.</div>
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In the next part, we'll take a look at the various font formatting you can do in Excel.</div>
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How to Centre Text and Numbers

You saw that by clicking inside of a cell it makes it active, so that you can make changes. We want to centre all our numbers and the text...