Format may refer to any of the following:

  1. Format or document format is the overall layout of a document or spreadsheet. For example, the formatting of text on many English documents is aligned to the left of a page. With text, a user could change its format to bold to help emphasize text.

In a spreadsheet, a user may change the format of a cell to be a different number format (e.g., currency, percentage, date, etc.).

It’s also possible to format a paragraph with paragraph formatting.

Before any text can be formatted, you must first highlight (select) the text you want to format.

  1. Format is a command that prepares a blank diskette, hard drive, or another drive to hold data. If the disk or drive already contains information, all information on it would be erased. For example, if you wanted to wipe everything on your hard drive, typing “format C:” would effectively erase all data on your computer, including the operating system (e.g., Windows).
  • Use the Microsoft Word Format Painter to copy formatting.
  • How to convert a number to text in Excel.
  • Overview of the Microsoft Office Ribbon.
  1. Format refers to how a file is saved on a computer. See our file format page for further information.
  • How to format a hard drive, SSD, or USB flash drive.
  • How to erase my hard drive and start over?
  • What is the difference between a quick format and a full format?
  • Can you get files and data after a hard drive is reformatted?
  • How to make sure all data is erased on a computer hard drive.
  • How to format a floppy diskette.
  • See the format command page for further information on this command.

Erase, Floppy drive terms, Formatted text, Hard drive terms, High-level format, Low-level format, Mount, Number format, Preformatted, Reformat, Word processor terms