The first step in making a spreadsheet readable is to tidy up the cell formatting. By smartly using cell borders, shading, data validation, and other formatting techniques, you can improve the ...

11:45 am August 1, 2025 By Julian Horsey Have you ever spent hours perfecting your Excel spreadsheet, only to watch your carefully crafted formatting fall apart the moment you insert a new row?

Here's what you need to do: Start by selecting a range of values, such as a column of numbers that represent the most important data on your spreadsheet. In the Home tab, click Conditional Formatting.

But even if your company does not allow the use of macros, Excel checkboxes can be useful for automatically formatting a spreadsheet. Imagine for instance, that you create a task list within Excel.