How to Create/Add a Currency Symbol in Excel
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In this tutorial, we will discuss how to add a currency symbol to your numbers in excel completely.
There are three methods to add the currency symbol. All of them use the format cells feature with a different format for each. We will also explain different characteristics for each cell format you can use to add the currency symbol here.
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Table of Contents:
How to Add a Currency Symbol in Excel 1: Currency Format
The first method we will discuss for the currency symbol addition process is the currency format. This format, like other formats, can be accessed and activated through the format cells menu in excel.About the characteristics of this currency format, there are several which can be important for you to know. These characteristics are:
- Excel will place your currency symbol right in front of your number
- You can set the number of decimals and the negative number form you want for your numbers
You can see those characteristics in display below.
How to implement this currency format on your numbers in excel? Here are the detailed steps.
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Highlight the cells where the numbers you want to add the currency symbol on are
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Press Ctrl + 1/right-click on those cells and choose Format Cells…. You can also click the Number Format dropdown in the Home tab and choose More Number Formats...
The Format Cells… choice in the right-click menu:
The More Number Formats... choice in the Number Format dropdown:
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In the Number tab on the dialog box shown, choose Currency
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Pick the currency symbol you want in the Symbol dropdown
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Input the number of decimals you want for your numbers in the Decimal Places text box
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Pick the negative number form you want for your numbers in the Negative Numbers box
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Click OK
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Done!
How to Add a Currency Symbol in Excel 2: Accounting Format
The second method to add a currency symbol to your numbers is by using the accounting format in format cells. For its characteristics, there are some points you should pay attention to about this accounting format.- Excel will place the currency symbol on the left edge of your cell, separated with your number
- The 0 number will be written as a dash symbol ( - )
- The negative number will be written in brackets
- You can set the number of decimals you want for your number
You can see the manifestation of these characteristics in the screenshot below.
How to implement this accounting format on your numbers so you can add the currency symbol using it? Here are the steps.
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Highlight the cells where the numbers you want to add a currency symbol on are
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Press Ctrl + 1/right-click on those cells and choose Format Cells…. You can also click the Number Format dropdown in the Home tab and choose More Number Formats...
The Format Cells… choice in the right-click menu:
The More Number Formats... choice in the Number Format dropdown:
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In the Number tab on the dialog box shown, choose Accounting
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Pick the currency symbol you want in the Symbol dropdown
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Enter the number of decimals you want for your numbers in the Decimal Places text box
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Click OK
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Done!
How to Add a Currency Symbol in Excel 3: Custom Format
What if you want to set manually the writing form of the numbers you add a currency symbol on? You can do that by choosing the custom format in your format cells.Generally, here are the steps to use the custom format to add a currency symbol.
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Highlight the cells where the numbers you want to put the currency symbol on are
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Press Ctrl + 1/right-click on the cells and choose Format Cells…. You can also click the Number Format dropdown in the Home tab and choose More Number Formats...
The Format Cells… choice in the right-click menu:
The More Number Formats... choice in the Number Format dropdown:
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In the Number tab on the dialog box shown, choose Custom
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Type the number format you want in the Type text box there (or choose in the box below it). Don’t forget to add the currency symbol you want in the format you choose
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Click OK
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Done!
How to Add an International Currency Symbol in Excel (e.g. USD)
Sometimes, we may want to add an international currency symbol in our numbers. An example of this is USD or EUR.Can we do that? Of course, we can because we have that choice too in the currency or accounting format’s Symbol dropdown. You can also choose the format that has the international currency symbol if you use the custom format.
You can see the location example for these international currency symbols in the Symbol dropdown below.
By choosing, for example, the USD symbol, the result will be like this for your numbers (accounting format)
Exercise
After you have learned how to add a currency symbol into your numbers in excel, let’s do an exercise!Download the exercise file and work on the instructions. Download the answer key file if you have done the exercise and want to check your answer. Or probably if you are confused about how to do the instructions.
Link for the exercise file:
Download here
Instructions:
Practice what you have already learned in the tutorial into each of the numbers. Pay attention to the particular instruction below
- Add a currency symbol into the first number using Currency format! What is the result?
- Add a currency symbol into the second number using Accounting format! What is the result?
- Change the empty cell format in the third row using one of the two formats and adjust it to two decimals. Then fill in the cell with 100000!
Link for the answer key file:
Download here
Additional Note
There are times when ### shows up in your cell after you add a currency symbol to your number. That means your cell column isn’t wide enough to contain the symbol. Because of that, add your column width so you can see your number with the currency symbol!Other tutorials you should learn too:
