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Formatting

Align text, format numbers, and style your sheets.

Text alignment

By default, numbers are right-aligned and text is left-aligned. You can change this for any cell, range, row, or column using the three alignment buttons in the toolbar: left, center, and right.

Select the cells you want to align, then click the desired alignment button. The alignment is saved with the sheet.

Tip

Centering column titles in the first row is a quick way to make your sheet look more professional.

Text style

Click the "Text style" icon in the toolbar, right next to alignment, to open the text style menu.

From there you can set a text color, choose a font size (small, normal, or large), and make text bold or italic. The Bold and Italic buttons are shown in the style they apply, so it's obvious what each one does.

Tip

Text color and cell background color are two different tools. Text color changes the letters themselves; the paintbrush icon changes the cell's fill instead.

Text wrapping

By default, a long line of text in a cell wraps onto more lines and the row grows to show all of it. You can change that for any cell from the wrap menu in the toolbar (the icon with folded lines of text).

  • Wrap: the default. Text wraps onto multiple lines and the row grows to fit.
  • Clip: text stays on one line and is cut off at the cell's edge instead of wrapping or growing the row.

Select the cells you want to change, then pick a mode from the menu.

Tip

Clip is handy for a column you want to keep narrow on purpose, like a short status or ID column, where the full text isn't necessary.

Number formatting

Click the # icon in the toolbar to open the number format menu. Four formats are available:

  • Number: adds thousand separators (1,234)
  • Currency: thousand separators with two decimal places (1,234.00)
  • Percent: multiplies the value by 100 and adds the % symbol (0.15 becomes 15.00%)
  • Date: formats the value as a calendar date

Select the cells you want to format before choosing a format. To go back to the default format, open the menu and click Clear.

Note

The currency format doesn't add a currency symbol. It simply formats the number with thousand separators and two decimal places, which works for any currency.

Cell colors

The paintbrush icon in the toolbar lets you apply a background color to cells. Six colors are available: yellow, red, orange, green, blue, and purple. Select one or more cells, then choose a color. Click the X to clear the color.

Colors are great for status tracking (green for done, red for urgent), visual organization, or just making important data stand out.

Tip

You can color an entire row or column at once. Select the row or column by clicking its header, then apply the color.

Cell borders

The grid icon in the toolbar adds borders to the selected cells. You can apply a border to all four sides, just the outline of a range, or a single side (top, bottom, left, or right).

Choose Clear from the same menu to remove borders from the selected cells.

Freezing rows and columns

When your sheet gets big, headers disappear as you scroll. Freezing fixes that. Select a row or column by clicking its header, then click the snowflake icon in the toolbar.

Frozen rows stay at the top of the grid and frozen columns stay on the left, no matter how far you scroll. Click the snowflake again to unfreeze.

Tip

You'll see a subtle line marking the boundary of frozen rows or columns. It's a helpful visual indicator of what's frozen.

Column and row size

Drag the edge of a column header or row number to resize it manually. Double-click the edge of a column header to auto-fit its width to the widest content in that column.

cDox remembers custom widths and heights. They'll persist when you come back to the sheet later.