Home Tab

The Home Tab is the starting point for you in Excel which has tools for formatting your text, aligning text in cells, applying styles to the cells, manage the rows and columns.

It consists of groups such as:

Clipboard

Offers you the tools for copying and pasting data within Excel.

• Copy (Ctrl + C): Copies the data from the selected cells to your clipboard, which will allow you to paste it in a different location.
• Cut (Ctrl + X): Moves the data from the selected cells to the clipboard which will allow you to move to a new location.
• Paste (Ctrl + P): Pastes or inserts the copied or cut content from the clipboard into the selected area with options such as pasting with formatting, values, formulas and more.
• Format Painter: Copies the format of the selected cell(s) which you can apply to different cell(s) making it easy to maintain the same style across your worksheet.

Font

Offers you the option to enhance the appearance of your worksheet.

• Font Size: Increase or decrease the size of the text for the selected cells.
• Font Color: Change the colour of the selected text within a range as per your requirements.
• Fill Color: Changes the selected cell’s background colour.
• Bold (Ctrl + B): Makes the selected text bold, giving it a thicker and darker look which draws attention to key points.
• Italic (Ctrl + I): Makes the selected cell’s values slant towards the right which is used for special terms.
• Underline (Ctrl + U): Adds a line below the text for selected cells which can be useful for marking headings.
• Borders: Allows you to add or modify the borders around the selected cells to enhance the visualization of your data.

Alignment

Allows you to align the text both horizontally and vertically within a cell.

• Horizontal Alignment: Adjust the position of your text from left to right within the cell.
  • Align Left (Alt, H, A, L): Align the text to the left side within a cell.
  • Center (Alt, H, A, C): Align the text to the centre of the cell.
  • Align Right (Alt, H, A, R): Align the text to the right within a cell.
• Vertical Alignment: Adjust the position of your text from top to bottom within the cell.
  • Top Align (Alt, H, A, T): Aligns the text to the top of the cell.
  • Middle Align (Alt, H, A, M): Centers the text vertically within the cell.
  • Bottom Align (Alt, H, A, B): Aligns the text to the bottom of the cell.
• Orientation: Rotates text within the cell allowing more dynamic presentation of the data.
• Wrap Text (Alt, H, W): Ensures all text within a cell is visible by wrapping it into multiple lines in a single cell if required which is a helpful option if the text length is long and wants to fit within a specific column width.
• Merge & Center: Combines multiple cell selections into one larger cell and also centres the content within those cells.
  • Merge Across: Combines cells across selected rows but does not combine vertically (column-wise).
  • Column-Merge Cells: Combines cells into a single cell but does not centre the content.

Also, read Shortcuts in Excel for both Windows and Mac here.

Number

Allows you to format the way numbers are displayed in your worksheet.

• Number Format: Applies number to your data without changing the value but adding two decimals by default.
• Increase Decimal (Alt, H, 0) and Decrease Decimal (Alt, H, 9): Adjusts the number of decimal places to be displayed for numbers.
• Currency Format (Ctrl + Shift + 4): Applies a currency format to your data adding a currency symbol by ensuring proper placement of decimal points.
• Percentage Format (Ctrl + Shift + 5): Converts the numbers to a percentage automatically by multiplying the value by 100 and also adds a percentage symbol.
• Comma Style: Inserts a comma separator for the selected cells so the large numbers are easier to read (thousands, millions etc.)

Styles

Allows you to apply predefined formatting to cells quickly or create custom formatting which helps you present your data consistently.

• Conditional Formatting (Alt, H, L): Applies formatting to cells based on the condition applied which allows you to use colour scales, data bars, or icon sets to visually emphasize the trends, variations, and specific conditions in your data.
• Format as Table (Alt, H, T): Convert the selected range of cells into a predefined table style. This will not only make your data visually clear but also enable additional table features such as sorting, filtering and automatic expansion of the formulas for entire columns.
• Cell Styles (Alt, H, J): Applies predefined styles to your cells such as headings, titles, or even specific data types like Good and Bad. You can also create custom cell styles based on your specific requirements.

Cells

Provides us with the tools that help to manage and modify the structure of the worksheet in Excel. It allows you to insert, delete and format cells to organize the data effectively.

• Insert (Alt, H, I) and Delete (Alt, H, D): Add new cells or Remove selected cells, an entire row or a column to your worksheet. This helps you clean your data or reorganize it by eliminating unnecessary parts of your worksheet.
• Format (Alt, H, O): Change the size, style and other attributes of the selected cells. This helps you adjust the row height, and column width, and also apply various formatting options such as renaming the worksheet, hiding and unhiding cells, rows and columns and much more.

Editing

Contains essential tools for managing and refining your data such as sorting, filtering, and also manipulating the content in your sheet.

• AutoSum (Alt + =): Quickly sum the numbers in a range, and it also lets you perform other calculations such as average, count, and more.
• Fill (Ctrl + D to Fill Down, Ctrl + R to Fill Right): Copies the values from one cell to adjacent cells. This will help you to quickly duplicate your data or increase series without manual typing.
• Clear (Alt, H, E, A to Clear All): Clears the format, content or comments from the selected cells.
• Sort & Filter (Alt, D, S to Sort and Ctrl + Shift + L to Filter): Organizes the data in ascending or descending order and also applies filters to display only the data based on the criteria selected.
• Find & Select (Ctrl + F to Find, Ctrl + H to Replace): Locates the content that matches the criteria within the worksheet or a workbook and if required, you can replace it as per the requirement.

Conclusion

In summary, the Home Tab in Excel contains all the essential tools that are required to format, style and manage your data within Excel more efficiently such as basic commands of copying and pasting data, aligning your values and more advanced commas like formatting your data into numbers, currency styles and also applying styles. With several commands at your fingertips under the Home Tab, it helps you present your data more professionally.