Font and text styling in Google Sheets - Real Business Scenario

Scenario Mode

👤 Your Role: You are an office assistant managing a monthly report.

📋 Request: Your manager wants the sales report to be easy to read by highlighting important numbers and making headers stand out.

📊 Data: You have a table with sales data including Product, Units Sold, and Revenue for the month.

🎯 Deliverable: Create a styled sales report where headers are bold and larger font, revenue over $1000 is highlighted in green, and units sold less than 50 are shown in red.

Sample Data

Product	Units Sold	Revenue
Apples	120	1500
Bananas	45	675
Cherries	75	1125
Dates	30	450
Elderberries	90	1350

1

Step 1: Select the header row (Product, Units Sold, Revenue) and make the font bold and increase font size to 14.

Select cells A1:C1, then click Bold button and set font size to 14.

Expected Result

Headers appear bold and larger than other text.

2

Step 2: Apply conditional formatting to Revenue column to highlight cells with values greater than 1000 in green background.

Select cells C2:C6, then Format > Conditional formatting > Format cells if > Greater than > 1000 > Set fill color to green.

Expected Result

Revenue cells with values 1500, 1125, and 1350 have green background.

3

Step 3: Apply conditional formatting to Units Sold column to show numbers less than 50 in red font color.

Select cells B2:B6, then Format > Conditional formatting > Format cells if > Less than > 50 > Set text color to red.

Expected Result

Units Sold cells with values 45 and 30 appear in red font.

4

Step 4: Center align all data cells for neatness.

Select cells A2:C6, then click the Horizontal align center button.

Expected Result

All data cells are horizontally centered.

Final Result

Product     Units Sold     Revenue
-----------------------------------
Apples         120          1500  
Bananas         45           675  
Cherries        75          1125  
Dates           30           450  
Elderberries    90          1350  

Headers are bold and larger.
Revenue > 1000 cells have green background.
Units Sold < 50 numbers are red.
All data is centered.

✓Headers stand out with bold and larger font.

✓High revenue values are easy to spot with green highlight.

✓Low units sold values are clearly visible in red font.

✓The report looks clean and easy to read.

Bonus Challenge

Add a total row at the bottom that sums Units Sold and Revenue, and style it with bold font and a light gray background.

Show Hint

Use SUM formula for columns and apply bold and fill color to the total row.

Practice

1. Which toolbar button in Google Sheets would you use to make text bold?

easy

A. The button with a paint bucket icon

B. The button with an I icon

C. The button with a B icon

D. The button with a U icon

Solution

1. Step 1: Identify the bold icon in the toolbar

   The bold button is represented by a capital letter B in bold style.

2. Step 2: Match the icon to the correct function

   Clicking the B icon makes selected text bold.

3. Final Answer:

   The button with a B icon -> Option C

4. Quick Check:

   Bold text = B icon [OK]

Hint: Bold text uses the B icon on the toolbar [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Confusing italic (I) with bold (B)
• Choosing underline (U) instead of bold
• Selecting paint bucket which changes background color

2. Which of these is the correct way to change the font color of a cell's text in Google Sheets using the toolbar?

easy

A. Right-click the cell and select 'Font Color'

B. Click the paint bucket icon and select a color

C. Click the bold button and choose a color

D. Click the letter A with a color bar underneath and pick a color

Solution

1. Step 1: Identify the font color button on the toolbar

   The font color button shows a letter A with a colored bar below it.

2. Step 2: Understand the paint bucket icon function

   The paint bucket changes the cell background color, not text color.

3. Final Answer:

   Click the letter A with a color bar underneath and pick a color -> Option D

4. Quick Check:

   Font color = A with color bar [OK]

Hint: Font color uses the A icon with a color bar [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Choosing paint bucket which changes background color
• Thinking bold button changes color
• Right-click menu does not have 'Font Color' option

3. If cell A1 contains the text "Hello" and you apply the formula =UPPER(A1) in cell B1, what will be the font style and text in B1?

medium

A. "HELLO" in uppercase letters, font style unchanged

B. "hello" in lowercase letters, font style bold

C. "Hello" unchanged, font style italic

D. Error because UPPER changes font style

Solution

1. Step 1: Understand the UPPER function effect on text

   The UPPER function converts all letters to uppercase but does not change font style.

2. Step 2: Check the output in cell B1

   Cell B1 will show "HELLO" in uppercase with the default font style (no bold or italic applied).

3. Final Answer:

   "HELLO" in uppercase letters, font style unchanged -> Option A

4. Quick Check:

   UPPER changes text case only [OK]

Hint: UPPER changes text case, not font style [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Thinking UPPER makes text bold or italic
• Confusing UPPER with formatting tools
• Expecting an error from UPPER function

4. You want to automatically make text red in cells with values less than 50. Which step fixes this conditional formatting rule that is not working?

Rule set: Format cells if "Less than" 50, but text color stays black.

medium

A. Change the rule to "Greater than" 50

B. Set the text color in formatting style to red

C. Remove the conditional formatting rule

D. Change the cell format to bold instead of color

Solution

1. Step 1: Check the conditional formatting rule setup

   The rule "Less than 50" is correct to target cells with values under 50.

2. Step 2: Verify the formatting style applied

   If text color stays black, the formatting style likely does not have text color set to red.

3. Final Answer:

   Set the text color in formatting style to red -> Option B

4. Quick Check:

   Conditional formatting needs style set [OK]

Hint: Set text color in conditional formatting style [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Changing rule condition instead of style
• Removing rule instead of fixing style
• Changing format to bold does not fix color issue

5. You want to highlight all cells in column B that contain the word "urgent" (case insensitive) by making the text bold and red automatically. Which conditional formatting custom formula should you use?

hard

A. =SEARCH("urgent", B1)

B. =EXACT(B1, "urgent")

C. =REGEXMATCH(B1, "urgent")

D. =LOWER(B1) = "urgent"

Solution

1. Step 1: Understand the need for case-insensitive substring matching

   SEARCH("urgent", B1) finds "urgent" anywhere in the cell ignoring case, returns a number if found (truthy in conditional formatting), or #VALUE! if not (falsy).

2. Step 2: Compare other formulas

   REGEXMATCH is case-sensitive by default; EXACT is case-sensitive exact match; LOWER(B1) = "urgent" requires the entire cell to match exactly after lowering.

3. Final Answer:

   =SEARCH("urgent", B1) -> Option A

4. Quick Check:

   SEARCH for case-insensitive substring [OK]

Hint: SEARCH for case-insensitive substring search [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Using REGEXMATCH which is case-sensitive
• Using EXACT which is case-sensitive exact match
• Using LOWER(B1) = "urgent" which matches exact cell content only