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Formatting

This lesson will demonstrate some of Mesa's formatting capabilities. Formatting changes the visually appearance of the worksheet to make it more pleasing and more effective at communicating information. Mesa allows you to change the format by direct manipulation, via menu commands, and via inspector panels. This lesson has examples of using the menu items and inspectors to change formatting.

Select cells E2 through G3. Select the Format->Quick->Display Formats -> Currency or Apple $ command. This makes all the cells in the range display their numbers in currency format with two decimal places. Select cells B2 through C3 and apply the currency format to those cells as well.

Select cells B4 and C4. Open the Cell Style Inspector using the Toolbar command. Change the display format from General to Currency using the pop-up list in the middle of the inspector. You have just changed the formatting of these cells the same way you would have by using the Display Formats -> Currency or Apple $ command.

Next, change the view in the Inspectors to the Border view by clicking on the button marked Border on the left side of the inspector. This will allow you to inspect the border attributes of the selected range. There are four check-boxes organized in a diamond shape in the inspector. These boxes control the border around the cell. Click on the top-center check-box. This will place a thin border on top of the selected range.

Mesa allows you to set the type of input that a cell will accept. This is valuable in order to make sure that data entry is done correctly. By default, Mesa tries to figure out the type of information that is entered into a cell (i.e., number, date, formula, etc.) You can control the type of information entered into a cell by defining the cell's Input Type using the Cell Style Inspector.

Select cells A2 and A3. Change the view on the Cell Style Inspector to Input Type. Change the input type to Date by clicking on the date radio button. You have designated this cell as date only. Note that the cell type designation Date is in light gray in below the cell number indicator in the upper left corner of the worksheet. Set cells B2 through C3 to Number format. Set cells D2 and D3 to String format. Set cells E2 and E3 to Number format. Finally set cells F2 through G3 to Formula format.

You have entered the formatting for this worksheet. You have changed the display format of number cells to display their contents as currency. You have put borders on cells and set the input type of cells. Please save your worksheet. It should look like the Lesson4.Mesa worksheet.

 

 

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