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In Excel there is much freedom to allow the teacher to create a document that looks exactly as envisioned. The Page Layout can be tall (portrait layout) or wide (landscape layout). The cells also can have their own unique look or Border. They can be outlined (have borders applied) or be plain with nothing around them (have no grid lines shown in the print). The Number Format can be dollars, percent or several other options. And the placement of the words (or Cell Alignment) can be varied. The Row Height and Column Width of a cell can also be adjusted.
Page Layout:
| The default is portrait. To keep this formatting do nothing. |
To change the document to be landscape, go to the File menu, then to "Page Setup". When this window appears, be sure to select the "Page" tab and then select the "Landscape" button . Notice at this point "Print Preview" is also available so it is possible to see what the finished document would look like.
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Cell Borders: The Print default is that no cell borders will be printed unless you make those choices. If you want all the borders to show just as the page looks when you are working on it, then follow the first step below.
Whole page borders:
- Go to "File" -> "Page Setup" and then to the "Sheet" tab. Under the "Print" section of this window, check the box in front of "Gridlines".
- If you want the Row and Column headings to show (the A, B, C's or 1, 2, 3's ) this is also the window that you would use. Check the box in front of the "Row and column heading".
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| To apply borders on just certain selected cells, select the cell or cells that are to have a borders. |
| The border tool is located on the Format Toolbar. Several options are available. Select the picture that best represents the borders to be applied . |
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If none of the options exactly matches the desired outcome, then the "Format Cells" screen is required. To open, go to the "Format" menu and select "Cells". There are several useful options here. For borders, select the "Border" tab. First select the "Style" of the line that will be the border, and then click the buttons around the sample cell to place the borders in the exact place needed. Clicking "OK" will set the chosen cells to the selected borders.
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| Number Format |
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Cells can also have the content or the cell formatted. If the information in the cell is money, the "Currency" style can be selected. The number of "Decimal places" can also be chosen as can the style. If the information is words (or text), this can be selected in the "Number" tab in the "Format Cells" screen. This is not usually necessary but is available if needed. There is also the option to customize the information to the precise style desired.
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| Cell Alignment |
Alignment has to do with the position of the information in a cell. Right, left, and center are the basic horizontal alignment choices. The vertical alignment can be top, center, or bottom.
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| Adjusting Row Height and Column Width |
In the illustration of the grade book, there are several different alignments shown. Some are pleasing and others are confusing. The name in cell A1 is left aligned as is John Doe. In B1 the Math pg 45 #1-15 is centered and the column is widened to fit the text into the column. Cell C1 has had no formatting. the words are long and run into the next 2 columns. If a third assignment was entered, part of C1 would not be visible. That column could either have the text wrapped or the column widened. There are two ways to widen the column. The easiest is to move the cursor to the line between column C and D. The mouse will become a plus sign with an arrow on each end of its horizontal line. Then drag to the size desired or double click on the line between column C and D. The column will then adjust automatically for the data in that column.
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| Wrap Text |
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In the above illustration the overflow of text in cell C1 could also be resolved by wrapping the text in that cell. The cell needs to be selected and then pull down the "Format" menu , and go to "Cells" and on the "Alignment" tab the wrap text selection is under the "Text control" section. When it is checked the text will wrap itself and stay in the cell.
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