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Changing the Look of Excel

With Excel 2013, what you see isn’t necessarily what you have to live with. This tip describes several ways to change the look of Excel. Some changes affect only the appearance. Other options allow you to hide various parts of Excel to make more room for displaying your data — or maybe because you prefer a less-cluttered look.

Cosmetic changes

When the preview version of Microsoft Office 2013 became available, there was a minor uproar about its appearance. Compared to previous versions, the applications looked “flat” and many complained about the overall white color.

When the final version was released, Microsoft added two alternative Office themes: light gray and dark gray. To switch to a different theme, choose File➜Options to display the Excel Options dialog box. Click the General tab and use the Office Theme drop-down list. The theme choice affects the appearance of the title bar, row and column borders, task panes, the taskbar, and a few other items. The theme you choose applies to all other Office 2013 applications.

Changing the Look of Cell Comments in Excel

Cell comments are useful for a variety of purposes. But sometimes you just get tired of looking at the same old yellow rectangle. This tip describes three tricks that you can use to make your comments stand out:

➤ Format a comment.

➤ Change the shape of a comment.

➤ Add an image to a comment.

note: All of these changes require that the cell comment is visible. If the comment isn’t visible, right-click the cell and choose Show/Hide Comments from the shortcut menu.

Setting up your Quick Access toolbar

The operations described in this tip require commands that aren’t normally available in the Ribbon when a comment is selected. So the first step is to add three commands to your Quick Access toolbar:

  1. Right-click the Quick Access toolbar and choose Customize Quick Access Toolbar. The Customization section of the Excel Options dialog box appears.

  2. From the Choose Commands From drop-down list, select All Commands.

  3. In the list on the left, select Format Shape and then click the Add button.

  4. In the list on the left, select Change Shape and then click the Add button.

  5. In the list on the left, select Picture Fill and then click the Add button.

  6. Click OK to close the Excel Options dialog box.

After you complete these steps, your Quick Access toolbar has three new icons.

Formatting a comment

To change the formatting of a comment, Ctrl+click the comment (to select it as a shape) and then click the Format Shape icon in your Quick Access toolbar, or you can press Ctrl+1. Either of these actions displays the Format Comment dialog box. This dialog box has eight tabs that enable you to change just about any aspect of the comment.

Changing the shape of a comment
Comments don’t have to display as a rectangular box. To change the shape of a comment, Ctrl+click the comment (to select it as a shape). Click the Change Shape button on the Quick Access toolbar and choose a new shape for the comment from the Shape gallery.
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