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One of Excel’s biggest strengths is the options for formatting that it can give its users. However, stacking formatting options on others can quickly cause problems to occur, and even lose values and data if they are inputted properly.
To help keep your spreadsheet as clear as possible, it can be a useful tool to know how to remove that formatting from your spreadsheet, so you can then apply our new format without any losses.
This guide will show you how you can do this for yourself.
Options For Clearing Formatting For Your Spreadsheet
Generally speaking, Excel provides you with the option of clearing the formatting for both individual cells, as well as for multiple cells that have been selected, alongside formatting the whole spreadsheet.
Clearing Formatting For Individual Cells
Below are the steps on how clear formatting for individual cells.
Step
Go To Home Tab
If you want to clear the formatting for an individual cell, simply click on the ‘Home tab of Excel, before choosing the ‘Clear’ option in the ‘Editing’ section of the page.
Step
Select The Clear Formats
From the option that clicking ‘clear’ produces, select the ‘clear formats’ option. This will allow you to remove any formatting that you have used on the cell that you have selected
Clearing The Formatting For Multiple Selected Cells
As the option that we mentioned in the last section is applied to all the cells that you have selected, it can also be used for larger groups of selected cells.
Step
Select The Larger Group Of Cells
For this option, simply select the larger group of cells that you wish to remove formatting from, before going to the ‘Editing’ section of the ‘Home’ tab.
Step
Press The Clear Button
Press the ‘clear’ button, before selecting the clear formatting option from the drop-down menu.
Removing All Formatting
This is an option that can be done if you want to apply it to a whole sheet, as opposed to a selected few.
Step
Open Microsoft Excel
For this option, open Microsoft Excel and the spreadsheet that you want to clear the formatting from.
Step
Press Both The Ctrl And A Keys
Once you are on the spreadsheet, press both the ‘Ctrl’ and ‘A’ keys on your keyboard. This will select the entire worksheet that you are currently on.
Step
Go To The Home Tab
With the worksheet selected, go to the ‘Home’ tab, and, like with the previous options, select the ‘clear’ button that is in the ‘Editing’ section of the tab.
Step
Clear Formatting
As with the other options, select the ‘clear formatting’ option on the menu that appears.
And that’s it!
Can I Remove Formatting By Simply Clearing The Cell’s Contents?
It should be noted that simply selecting a cell in a worksheet and using the ‘Clear all’, delete, or ‘Clear Contents’ options will only remove the values that a cell may have stored inside of it, and not the formatting of the cell itself.
Does Deleting A Cell Or A Cell Row Clear The Formatting?
Selecting a row or column and deleting it completely from the worksheet will remove its formatting of them. However, you will still lose the value contents of the cell, so make sure that you have the values elsewhere before choosing this option.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, the basic concept used for all three methods is virtually unchanged, outside the size of the cells that you have selected, and the commands used to select them. Follow our step-by-step guide to clear formatting in Excel, to avoid the common mistakes of deleting your essential data and cells.
