On days when I look at a lot of numeric data in Excel, usually the data arrives with a hodgepodge of formatting, even with differences on a cell-by-cell, not just column or row, basis.

Before I really dig into the data, I often find myself reformatting, even re-arranging, into a spreadsheet that helps me see the relevant pieces.
At the very least I try to turn the disorderly into something orderly.

As I do this, I come to understand the dataset better, simply because I have my hands in it a little more deeply.

One line of reformatting that I find myself repeating is to ask how I can simplify the visual information in a sheet full of numbers, say dollar figures and percentages.

So, let’s take a block of numbers like this. (These are random numbers for the sake of illustration.)

Simplify numerals by omission and rounding

My first question is whether I need all the numerals, in particular the cents. Most often for my purposes, I don’t need cents. Rather, whole dollars are fine, and sometimes it is perfectly fine to round to the thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions, or some other place.

In this case, let’s just dismiss the pennies.

That’s simpler. With fewer numbers to look at, there is more visual spacing between columns and it is simply more easy to see the numbers. If you had just a few numbers, don’t bother, but if you have hundreds or thousands of cells to consider, it really matters.

Reduce symbols like dollar signs $

Next, I know these are dollar figures, so I don’t need all of those dollar signs. Yet, I don’t want to lose the information entirely, so I do like to just label the first row.

Already, compared to the first example, this simplified view is a relief.

Replace the comma thousands separator with a thin space

Now, the reason I started this post is something already illustrated in these examples: the thousands place is held by a column of white instead of the slightly busier signifier of commas.

In general, this means fewer visual marks, and I realize it may seem extreme, but a massive amount of repeated commas over the course of a day of poring over spreadsheets is just unnecessary.

So to keep the benefit of seeing the separators, I do like setting my Excel thousands separator to a thin space character.

To do that, in Excel’s Preferences menu, find the “Thousands separator” field (you probably need to un-check “Use system separators”), for me it is under Edit, and replace the comma with a thin space glyph.

Oh, how do you get a thin space glyph? You could copy the space between these next two words: thin space. Then paste over the comma in the Excel preferences menu.

Final tip: not all fonts recognize a thin space character, and will instead either put no space at all or a regular space. So, try them out to be sure. Microsoft’s new default Aptos font, which I used in the examples above, does make use of thin space.