Changing Currency Format Using Google Sheets

There are certain instances when data in spreadsheets should be formatted with a particular currency format — may it be in US Dollars, Philippine Peso, or the like. As you may know, Google Sheets’ default currency is US Dollars. With that, you should be aware of how to change this to format your data more appropriately and realistically. Simply follow the steps below to make this happen.

1. Go to the Google Sheets website.

To begin, open your web browser and navigate your way to the Google Sheets website. Don’t forget to log into your account before you can formally start. This is because you need to access your previously created spreadsheets.

2. Open the spreadsheet you wish to edit.

After logging into your account, browse all your previously created spreadsheets and select the one that you would like to edit. Click on your selected spreadsheet to open it.

3. Select the cells that you want to format.

In your spreadsheet, find the set of data that you wish to change the currency format. Highlight their cells after locating them. An indication that they are highlighted is when the cells are filled with blue. If your set of data is an entire row or column, you can just simply click on the row number or column letter to highlight its entirety.

4. Click on “Format” from the menu bar.

After highlighting the cells that you wish to format, click on “Format” from the menu bar located on the upper corner of your screen. Note that clicking this will make a dropdown list appear.

5. Hover your cursor to “Number” from the list.

You’ll see from the list several options such as Theme, Number, Bold, Italic, Underline, Strikethrough, Font size, etc. From that list, click on the “Number” option, where another list will appear.

6. Click “Custom currency” from the second drop-down list.

The second list will contain more options such as Automatic, Plain text, Number, Percent, Scientific, and more. Locate the option “Custom currency” from the list and click on it. This will make a pop-up window appear.

7. Select the currency that you prefer to use.

The pop-up window will contain a variety of currency formats, so select the one that you prefer to use in your spreadsheet. If you can’t find your preferred currency, you may opt to customize your own by typing in the symbol that you want to use on the text box above the pop-up window.

8. Choose your preferred format on the dropdown menu located in the text box.

To further format the currency option that you’ve chosen, explore the dropdown menu inside the text box. From there, you can select whether your currency should be placed before or after the numbers, or whether decimal numbers should appear or not.

9. Click on “Apply” to save your changes.

If you’re done exploring the formats that you want to apply to your currency format, click on the “Apply” button to save your changes. After this, you’ll automatically see the changes in your spreadsheet.

Note that only data cells that contain numbers in them would be formatted with a currency.

Endnotes

Applying a currency format to your data is as simple as changing the currency itself. All you have to do is to get a hold of the steps above, then you won’t have any more problems the next time you do it.