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Cell Formatting

In Tabulate you can apply formatting to individual cells and groups of cells. Formatting can greatly enhance visibility, particularly when working with large worksheets. Modifying default formats allows you to make changes such as altering font color, style, and size, adjusting text alignment within cells, and applying various formatting effects.

Formatting Panel

To access the Cell formatting options in the Formatting panel:

Select the cell or cells that you want to format, and right-click Format Cells.
If you already had the Formatting panel open, select some cells in the spreadsheet to change to the Number tab.

You can now select one of the Cell formatting tabs along the top of the panel: Font, Fill, and Border.

Font tab

The Font tab specifies the appearance of text within selected Tabulate cell or cells. Select the text that you want to format, right-click Format Cells and pick the Font tab in the Formatting panel.

Field	Description
Font	To use a different font style, click the arrow next to the default font and choose your desired font.
Size	To incrementally increase or decrease the font size, click the Increase or Decrease font buttons. Otherwise, type the font size you want into the text box.
Style	Use the Style options to make the text or numbers Bold, Italic, or to add an Underline. Note: Selecting "Underline" resets the value in the Underline field to Single, indicating a single underline. Tip: You can change this to Double if you want a double underline. To "cross out" your text or number, select the Strike-Through option. To change the font color, click Font Color (letter 'A' with a colored underscore) and select your required color.
Underline	See above.
Text Indent	To increase or decrease the indentation of the text, click increase or decrease indent.
Align	To position the text horizontally, click the left, center, or right button. The text is aligned according to your selection.
Vertical Align	To position the text vertically, click the top, middle, or bottom button. The text is aligned according to your selection.
Word Wrap	To see extra-long text in a cell, click Word Wrap and wrap the text onto multiple lines.
Merge and Center	To merge cells, select the appropriate Merge & Center option from the drop-down list. Note: When you merge cells that contain data, only the content in the upper left or left-most cell is preserved. When you unmerge cells, you return to the state before the cells were merged.

Fill tab

The Fill tab specifies the background color for your selected Tabulate cell or cells. Select the cells that you want to format, right-click Format Cells and pick the Fill tab in the Formatting panel.

The color picker panel is divided into parts:

Theme Colors: These colors have been assigned from the current report theme.
Standard Colors: These colors are available for all visualizations, regardless of the report theme.
Custom Colors: These colors have been used already and can be used again.
More Colors: Choose a custom Hex or RGB color. Once used, your selection is added to the Custom Colors.
Find a Color: Use the Chat GPT integration to generate a color.

Border tab

The Border tab specifies what borders your selected Tabulate cell or cells should have. Select the cells that you want to format, right-click Format Cells and pick the Border tab in the Formatting panel.

Field	Description
Borders	Toggle the border buttons to show or hide: all borders, outside borders, internal borders, top, bottom, right, or left borders.
Style	Change the line style to be solid, dashed, dotted line, or to select a different thickness.
Border Color	To change the color of the grid's borders, click the Border Color button to open the color picker.

Tabulate Ribbon

Formatting text in a cell

The font setting buttons on the Font Ribbon enable you to specify the appearance of text within Tabulate cells. Select the text that you want to format, and on the Font ribbon, pick the option you want.

To use a different font style, click the arrow next to the default font and choose your desired font. By default, this is typically Arial.
Use the drop-down to increase or decrease the Font Size.
To incrementally increase or decrease the font size, click the Increase or Decrease buttons. (These options have a letter 'A' icon with an increase or decrease sign.)
To increase or decrease the indentation of the text, click increase or decrease indent.
Use the Style options to make the text or numbers Bold, Italic, or to add an Underline. To "cross out" your text or number, select the Strike-Through option.
To change the border style, click borders and select the style required.
To change the border color, click border color and select the required color.
To change the background color of the selected text, click Table Background Color and select the required color.
To change the font color, click Font Color (letter 'A' with a colored underscore) and select your required color.

Positioning text in a cell

To arrange text within a paragraph of text, select the text that you want to align, and on the PARAGRAPH ribbon, pick the alignment option you want.

To position the text vertically, click the top, middle, or bottom button. The text is aligned according to your selection.
To see extra-long text in a cell, click Word Wrap and wrap the text onto multiple lines.
To position the text horizontally, click the left, center, or right button. The text is aligned according to your selection.
To merge cells, select the appropriate Merge & Center option from the drop-down list. Note: When you merge cells that contain data, only the content in the upper left or left-most cell is preserved. When you unmerge cells, you return to the state before the cells were merged.

Clipboard formatting

To cut text from a cell or range of cells, select the text and click Cut. The select text will remain in the clipboard.
To copy text from a cell or range of cells, select the text and click Copy. The select text will remain in the clipboard.
To paste text from the clipboard, place the cursor where you want the cells to be copied to, then click Paste.
To copy formatting from one cell to another cell or range of cells.
1. Select the cell with the formatting you want to copy.
2. Click Format Painter.
3. Select the cell or range you want to apply the formatting to.
4. Release the mouse button to apply the formatting.