Setting Text Attributes

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated December 10, 2020)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


The term text attributes refers to how a particular font is presented. For instance, you might use the bold attribute to emphasize your text, or italics might be used to indicate a term being defined (as in the first sentence of this paragraph). Excel refers to these text attributes as font styles. The most common text attributes can be easily applied with a few of the tools available on the Formatting toolbar. There are three text attribute tools provided Bold, Italic, and Underline.

There are other types of text attributes available in Excel, but these cannot be applied from the Formatting toolbar. (At least, not without customizing the toolbar.) Instead you must use the full cell formatting features of Excel. This is done by using the menus, following these steps:

  1. Select the cell (or information within a cell) whose attributes you want to change.
  2. Choose the Cells option from the Format menu. Excel displays the Cells dialog box.
  3. Make sure the Font tab is selected. (See Figure 1.)
  4. Figure 1. The Font tab of the Cells dialog box.

  5. Use the Font Style control to indicate whether the text should be regular, bold, italics, or bold italics.
  6. Use the Underline control to specify any underlining of the text.
  7. Use the check boxes in the Effects area to set any additional attributes.
  8. Click on OK.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2675) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Adding Data Labels to Your Chart

Adding labels to a chart can make the information presented in the chart more understandable. Excel allows you to add ...

Discover More

Rounding Time

Need to round the time in a cell to a certain value? There are a couple of ways you can do this with a formula.

Discover More

Creating a Boilerplate Document

If you have several boilerplate documents you need to routinely use in Word, then you should learn how to use templates. ...

Discover More

Program Successfully in Excel! John Walkenbach's name is synonymous with excellence in deciphering complex technical topics. With this comprehensive guide, "Mr. Spreadsheet" shows how to maximize your Excel experience using professional spreadsheet application development tips from his own personal bookshelf. Check out Excel 2013 Power Programming with VBA today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Automatically Copying Formatting

It's easy to automatically set the contents of one cell to be equal to another cell. But what if you want to copy the ...

Discover More

Dates with Periods

You may want Excel to format your dates using a pattern it doesn't normally use—such as using periods instead of ...

Discover More

Copying Formatting

Excel provides a couple of different ways to copy formatting from one cell to another. Perhaps the easiest way is to use ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 0 + 7?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.