Continuing our sweep across the formatting buttons gathered in the Font group, we’ve reached a button which, if you want to be technical about it, really doesn’t impact fonts directly—the border button (Figure 4–11):
Figure 4–11. The cell Border option
But that doesn’t detract from its usefulness, however. The border button draws lines, or borders, around cells, and not the characters entered in those cells. Borders are often applied around groups of numbers in order to call proper attention to them. You’re viewing the default border setting above, called simply Bottom Border, and simplicity notwithstanding, a bit of explanation is required. If you select a range of cells and click the Bottom Border setting you see above, a border will be drawn only along the bottom border of the last, or bottom cell; that is, all you’ll see is one horizontal border lining the very lowest cell in the range—and not the bottom border of every cell you’ve selected. In other words, if you select nine cells and click the bottom border button you won’t see this (Figure 4–12):
Figure 4–12. Don’t expect to see this when you select the Bottom Border option down a range of cells Instead, you’ll see this (Figure 4–13):
Figure 4–13. Surprise—only one bottom border, drawn at the bottom of all the nine selected cells because the border options do their work by default on the outer borders of a selected range, that’s all, not the internal borders of the cells (the ones inside the range). And if you click the drop-down arrow alongside the button (Figure 4–14):
Figure 4–14. The Border drop-down menu
you’ll discover that, with one exception, all the options subsumed under the Borders heading do their thing around a segment of the outer border of the range you’ve selected. The accompanying images clearly tell you what you can expect. The exception to the above: If you select All Borders, then all the borders around all the cells in a range will receive borders (Figure 4–15):
Figure 4–15. How the All Borders options looks over a range of selected cells
Note that the No Borders removes unwanted borders. Select a bordered range, click No Borders, and the borders disappear.
And what about the border commands shelved beneath the Draw Border heading? Here some very different options present themselves (Figure 4–16):
Figure 4–16. Customize borders with the Draw Border option
First, clicking Draw Border turns your mouse pointer into a pencil, enabling you to “draw” an outside border around any range of cells you wish (Figure 4–17):
Figure 4–17. Drawing a border with Excel’s pencil tool
And after you’ve drawn your range the pencil remains available, giving you the opportunity to draw other borders elsewhere if you wish. To turn the pencil off, just press the Esc key.
Selecting Draw Border Grid also calls up that pencil (duly sharpened) to the screen, and lets you draw lines around all the borders of any range of cells. And if you want, you can drag the pencil down only one column border, or only the lower border of cells. Thus, you can use Draw Border Grid to produce a border like this (Figure 4–18):
Figure 4–18. Reading between the line: a single line, drawn with the pencil tool
Erase Border will, when clicked, restyle the mouse pointer into an eraser. Once it’s in view, you can click the eraser on any particular border line and the line will disappear. You can click on individual border lines or drag over a series of borders; either way, when the mouse is released the lines vanish.
Again, to turn the eraser off, press Esc (Figure 4–19):
Figure 4–19. The Eraser tool
Line Color is really a subtle variation on Draw Border Grid. Click the command, select your color
Figure 4–20. Where to find Line Color and Line Colors
There’s that pencil again (Figure 4–21):
Figure 4–21. Drawing a line somehwere: the Line Color tool in action
Then, as with Draw Border Grid, drag the pencil over the desired cells. A border appears around all sides of the selected cells, in the desired color. You can apply this command to borders that currently don’t display a line, or to existing, standard-black border lines, which means you can re-color borders.
Line Style allows you to modify the texture and weight (thickness) of the lines you draw (Figure 4–22):
Figure 4–22. Weighty matter: Line Style options
so that your borders can take on a different look, e.g., see Figure 4–23:
Figure 4–23. Not the same old line
The final line option, More Borders, is, alas, the most confusing. It too allows you to draw lines
pay close attention to what the dialog box is trying to tell you. If you select just one cell on the worksheet, you’ll be brought to the More Borders tab in the Format Cells dialog box, which looks like Figure 4–24 (note that here it’s just titled “Border”):
Figure 4–24. Where to add more borders
Select a column of cells and you’ll see this (Figure 4–25)
Figure 4–25. Subtle difference—Note the word “Text” appearing twice
Note the word “Text” appears here twice vertically, representing the columnar selection. Select a row of cells and you’ll see this (Figure 4–26)
Figure 4–26. Text appearing horizontally, enabling borders to draw along that orientation
You’re getting the idea. By then clicking the various line options surrounding the Text image you can border the selected cells; and while this option doesn’t offer much more than what you’re getting in the other border-drawing options, you do have those diagonals. If I click a diagonal, I’ll see, by way of preview (Figure 4–27):
Figure 4–27. A new angle on borders
Click OK and you get this effect (Figure 4–28):
Figure 4–28. Angled lines, as per the dialog box preview
Odd but interesting, and you may be able to conjure a use for it.
The final two Font Group buttons, Fill and Font Color, respectively, are popular ones (Figure 4–29):
Figure 4–29. Two classic buttons: Fill and Font Color
When clicked, the Fill button colors any cells you’ve selected from a set of options presented in this drop-down menu (Figure 4–30)
Figure 4–30. Standard Fill color options
It’s very easy. Note you can remove any fill color by selecting the cells in question and clicking No Fill. You can also fill-color empty cells, that is, cells currently containing no data. Clicking More Colors yields a beehive of additional hues (Figure 4–31):
Figure 4–31. A beehive of color activity
Click the Custom Color tab and you can enter various numeric color values and add nuanced shadings to your tints. I’m still having trouble with ROYGBIV, though.
And befitting its name, Font Color serves up a nearly identical drop-down color menu, this time enabling you to change the color of the data you’ve entered in selected cells—not the color of the cells themselves (Figure 4–32):
Figure 4–32. Standard font colors
Note, however, that the above menu also offers an Automatic color option; click it and you return the data to the default black font color. A More Colors option is likewise provided here, as well as a Custom color option.