Special Edition Using Microsoft® Office XP

Using AutoFormat

Like the Word feature of the same name, Excel's AutoFormat promises to turn your worksheet into a work of art, instantly and effortlessly. When you apply AutoFormatting to simple worksheet ranges with easily identifiable headings, totals, and other elements, the feature works pretty much as advertised. In fact, the AutoFormat options available with PivotTables are exceptionally useful because the format of a PivotTable is always the same. For more complex worksheets, however, it's likely that you'll need to clean up after AutoFormat. In general, we recommend trying the AutoFormat options; you can always undo the results if you don't like them, and in many cases the formatting gives you a good start.

When you use AutoFormat and ...