Whether we work in a company or we want to keep accounting from home in an organized way from the PC, Microsoft Excel is a very interesting proposal. This is one of the most used programs worldwide, so its importance in the software sector is extreme, as many of you already know.
The truth is that at first it imposes a lot of respect due, among other things, to the interface that it presents to us, and the enormous amount of functions it offers. But we must admit that when it comes to working with numerical data, it is the best option we can use. In fact, it is a software that has been around for a good number of years and does not stop improving and increasing its versatility. Hence, it is used in all types of environments and is valid for most users.
On the other hand, although at first it may seem complex, which it is, it also depends on how much we want to deepen its use. Keep in mind that here we have formulas and functions of all kinds, both basic and very complex. To a large extent, all this will depend on what we need or the degree of complexity we are looking for. Therefore, for those of you who do not know it well, we will say that Excel is an application that works like a spreadsheet that is used all over the world.
Some unknown Excel functions
But this is a software solution that not only focuses on dealing with numbers and formulas, but goes much further. We tell you this because at the moment and thanks to the functionalities that it presents us, we also have the possibility of using other elements. Here we refer to objects such as tables, images , graphs, etc.
All of this will be extremely useful to us when it comes to giving added value to our work here. In fact, we can say that the program as such has a good number of functions that we probably do not know yet and that are useful.
This is precisely the case that we want to talk about in these same lines. And it is that next we are going to talk about a very simple function, but that will be very useful in most of the sheets that you make. To give us an idea of what we are talking about, we will start by saying that this is a program that by default shows us negative numbers with a minus sign . This is done, as you can imagine, so that we can identify these values at a glance.
Mark negative values in Excel in red
But it can also be the case that at the same time this method does not completely convince us. Therefore, to customize this display system, the program offers a few different options . With this, what we achieve is to give another format to the negative numbers and to be able to distinguish them better. For all that has been said, we will tell you that in these same lines we are going to show you how to change the way of seeing negative numbers by default in Excel. For all this we are going to show you how you can configure all this and thus be able to configure a personalized format.
In fact, it must be taken into account that the program offers us different built-in options for this. It will largely depend on the region and the language settings of the operating system itself. What we mean by this is that in most regions we can see these negative numbers in red, black, or in parentheses. In the same way, the usual thing is that they are shown with or without a minus sign in both colors .
Therefore, below we are going to review how to add additional options and thus customize the format of negative numbers in the Microsoft program. With this, what we are really going to achieve is change to a different format. Therefore, the first thing we must do is click with the right mouse button on a selected cell or range of cells that we are going to deal with. Next we will have to click on the Format Cells option in the program’s context menu .
Therefore, in the next window that appears on the screen, we go to the tab called Number. After that, in the left panel where we see a list, we select the category also called Number. It will be at that moment when in the right panel we will have the possibility to choose one of the options shown in the Negative numbers section. Therefore, we have to select one of the compatible proposals shown here, and to save the changes, click on the Accept button .
In this way, in the case that for example we opt for the red color that we see between the samples, from that moment all these negative numbers will be highlighted in this color when we are designing our spreadsheet .
Create a custom negative number format
Another point that we must bear in mind is that the program also gives us the opportunity to create our own formats. By this, what we mean is that we are going to have greater control over how the data we work with is displayed. To do this, the first thing we do is right-click on a cell and select Format cells again . Then, we also go to the Number tab and opt for the Custom category in the left panel.
Therefore, at that moment we will find a list with different formats in the right pane of the window. Say that each of them consists of a maximum of four sections separated by semicolons between them. The first is for positive values, the second for negatives, the third for zero values and the last for texts.
These are samples that Excel presents to us to give us an idea, but we can create our own format. For example, if we want to display a negative number format, in red, between parentheses and without decimals, the format to create would be the following: #, ## 0; [Red] (#, ## 0). This is what we would have to enter in the Type box.