In this video, we're going to look at how to apply number formatting. Number formats let us present how numbers slightly differently in a spreadsheet. When we click in a cell and just type in a number, Excel assumes we want to use a general number format, which basically means no number format has been applied. However, that's not always the best look. So, here I have a whole bunch of currency values but some of them are full decimal places and I have no idea what currency we're working in. So, I would like to change this to represent its currency. I'm going to select all my cells that contain the values, come up to my number group, click the drop-down and choose currency. Excel automatically applies the currency specified in your regional settings and the appropriate number of decimal places, and that looks much better. Similar to the currency, we can also choose the accounting format. It's available on our drop-down, or we can simply click on the dollar symbol underneath the drop-down. It looks very similar, but you'll notice the currency symbol is on the left of the cell and some padding has been added on the right. So, it's a good idea not to combine currency and accounting in the same data set. Coming back to the dollar sign, there's a little drop-down and if you click on that, you actually have the option to choose different currencies as well. Another format that is very useful is the percentage. So, looking at my commission rate, I've tied to data 0.05 but I could come up here and choose percentage, and now it raises five percent. If when you're typing in the value, you know you want to percentage, you can type it in directly, so I can type 10 percent and press "Enter", an Excel has realized what I actually want is a percentage symbol and it has applied the percentage format. If I were to change this back to general, let's see, it's 0.1. I'm going to leave that ex-ante. Now, the last number format we're going to look at is the date format. It might seem a little surprising that this is a number format, but actually dates in Excel are just numbers formatted to look like dates. So, for example, if I click in the cell type one and press "Enter", comeback and convert that to a short date, you'll see it's changed to the first of January, 1900. So, dates in Excel are just the number of days since the first of January, 1900 formatted to look like a date. Just like with a percentage, if I type it in so it looks like a date, and press "Enter", Excel automatically applies the date format. It is important to choose a date format that Excel recognizes. For example, if I were to type 2017 03 03, that is not a valid date format and Excel has left it as general. This will cause problems as I will not be able to do calculations with those dates. So, I'm going to delete that. Another date format you can choose is, if you come up to your number formatting, click the drop-down, you can also go for a long date. While having dates as numbers is great because it allows us to do calculations, it can sometimes give us some unexpected results. I'm going to click on this date and I'm going to make a few changes. I'm going to make the cell blue, and the font white, and then I'm going to delete the contents. Now, not surprisingly, Excel has left the formatting there and, of course, the number formatting has also not been removed. What that means is, if I come into the cell sometime later and type 45 and click "Enter", "Oh my gosh!" I get a date. That can be a little alarming, but all it means is that cell was already formatted as a date and all you need to do is come back, click on it and change it to general, problem solved. We're not going to go into these in detail for now but we've been looking at Excel's built-in number formats. You can also work with your own custom formats, and to access these, you come to the dialog launcher bottom of the number group and click to open up your Format Cells Dialog. We will look at custom number formats in a little more detail later. Finally, something to be a little careful of, when you wish to clear formats as we did in the previous video, so, for example, I'm going to select these two cells, come up to "Clear" and click "Clear formats", that has removed my number formatting. So, do be a little cautious when working with clear formats as you will lose not just your font alignment but also your number formatting. Don't be afraid though to get an A and have a practice.