Changing Font Format in Google Sheets

Good formatting can make a spreadsheet much easier to read. Luckily in google sheets, you can easily change the format of your text and cells to customize your font, font size, text color, and fill color.

As you begin to create your spreadsheet you want to use formatting to your advantage. In this tutorial, we are going to cover everything you need to know about editing and applying basic formatting to your google spreadsheets.

Table of Contents

How to Change Default Font

Changing the default font will change the font of your entire workbook. If you want your whole workbook and all your sheets to be the new font. Use this method:

1. In the top toolbar menu select Format, and then select Theme.

2. On the right-hand side, select Customize

3. Scroll down to the font section and select the font you want in the drop-down menu

4. Click on the green Done button in the image above

This has changed the default font setting of your google sheet workbook.

How to Change Font Size

Change Font Size of the Entire Sheet

There may be some instances where you want to change the font size of the entire sheet. To do this, you have to make sure your select the entire sheet before changing the font size.

Here’s how it’s done:

1. Select the entire sheet by clicking the top left corner of your sheet or pressing CTRL + A on your keyboard (the select all command)

2. Navigate to the font size tool in the toolbar and select the dropdown. From here you can either enter a number manually or select a font size number from the toolbar

3. After you select the font size you want, the font of your entire sheet will change to the font you have selected

Change Font Size of Specific Text

There may be some instances where you want to change the font of specific cells, rows, or columns. This works the same way as changing the font of the entire sheet, except in this situation you only select the cells you want to change, instead of selecting all like in the last example.

Here’s how it’s done. In this example, I will be changing the font size of my header rows only.

1. Select the cells that you want to change the font size of. In this example, to select the header row, I have clicked to the left of the row in the “1” area to select the entire row

2. Navigate to the font size tool in the toolbar and either enter a number or select the new font size in the drop-down.

3. After you select or enter your number, this will change the font size of the cells that you have selected.

How to Change Text Color

You can change the text color of the entire sheet or just specific cells, columns, or rows. Whatever you have highlighted when you select a new color will be the cells that change.

Here’s how it’s done:

1. Highlight the area that you want to change the text color of by clicking and dragging to select the cells you want

2. Navigate up to the text color tool in the toolbar and click on it to view the color options. From here you simply click on the new color that you want the text to change to.

3. After you have clicked on the color you want, all of the cells that you have highlighted will have changed to the new color.

Bolding, Italics, and Strikethrough

In google sheets, you have many other formatting options for your text such as the option to make text bold, italics, or strikethrough. You can apply these options to specific cells, rows, columns, or the entire sheet. In this option, I will do it for the top header row only.

1. Select the cells that you want to change the formatting of. I have clicked all the way to the left of the row in the “1” to select the entire first row.

2. If you want to make your text bold, navigate to the bold tool in the toolbar and click on it to make the selected cells bold. You can also press CTRL + B on your keyboard to do this.

3. If you want to make your highlighted text italics, navigate to the italics tool and click on it. The keyboard command to do this is CTRL + I.

4. If you want to make your selected cells have strikethrough text, click on the strikethrough tool. The keyboard command for this is Alt + Shift + 5.

How to Change Cell Color

Another option that you have is to change the background color, fill color, or cell color in google sheets.

To change the color of certain cells:

1. Select the cells that you want to change the color of. You can select specific cells, rows, columns, or the entire sheet. Here I have selected the top header row.

2. Navigate to the fill color tool in the top menu. When you click on this, you will see the color options. Click on the color you want to use.

3. After you have clicked on this, the color of the cells you have selected will change.

Closing Thoughts

There you have it. That is how you change basic formatting in google sheets. You have many other formatting options to customize the appearance of your google spreadsheets, but the options we have outlined here are the basics that everyone should learn. We hope you found this guide helpful!