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1. Select the cell or range (range: Two or more cells on a sheet. The cells in a range can be adjacent or nonadjacent.) of cells that you want to format.

   How to select a cell or a range

   To select	Do this
   A single cell	Click the cell, or press the arrow keys to move to the cell.
   A range of cells	Click the first cell of the range, and then drag to the last cell, or hold down SHIFT while you press the arrow keys to extend the selection. You can also select the first cell of the range and then press F8 to extend the selection by using the arrow keys.
   A large range of cells	Click the first cell in the range, and then hold down SHIFT while you click the last cell in the range. You can scroll to make the last cell visible.
   All cells on a worksheet	Click the Select All button. To select the entire worksheet, you can also press CTRL+A. Note  If the worksheet contains data, CTRL+A selects the current region. Pressing CTRL+A a second time selects the entire worksheet.
   Nonadjacent cells or cell ranges	Select the first cell or range of cells, and then hold down CTRL while you select the other cells or ranges. You can also select the first cell or range of cells and then press SHIFT+F8 to add another nonadjacent cell or range to the selection. Note  You cannot cancel the selection of a cell or range of cells in a nonadjacent selection without canceling the entire selection.
   An entire row or column	Click the row or column heading. Row heading  Column heading  You can also select cells in a row or column by selecting the first cell and then pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ARROW KEY (RIGHT ARROW or LEFT ARROW for rows, UP ARROW or DOWN ARROW for columns). Note  If the row or column contains data, CTRL+SHIFT+ARROW KEY selects the row or column to the last used cell. Pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ARROW KEY a second time selects the entire row or column.
   Adjacent rows or columns	Drag across the row or column headings. Or select the first row or column; then hold down SHIFT while you select the last row or column.
   Nonadjacent rows or columns	Click the column or row heading of the first row or column in your selection; then hold down CTRL while you click the column or row headings of other rows or columns that you want to add to the selection.
   More or fewer cells than the active selection	Hold down SHIFT while you click the last cell that you want to include in the new selection. The rectangular range between the active cell (active cell: The selected cell in which data is entered when you begin typing. Only one cell is active at a time. The active cell is bounded by a heavy border.) and the cell that you click becomes the new selection.

   Note  To cancel a selection of cells, click any cell on the worksheet.

2. On the Format menu, click Cells.
3. On the Number tab, click Number in the Category list.
4. To display or hide the thousands separator, select or clear the Use 1000 separator (,) check box.

Tip   To quickly display the thousands separator, you can click Comma Style on the Formatting toolbar (toolbar: A bar with buttons and options that you use to carry out commands. To display a toolbar, press ALT and then SHIFT+F10.).

Note  By default, Excel displays the system separator for thousands. You can specify a different system separator by changing the regional settings in Control Panel. Or you can temporarily substitute a different character for the system separator. For more information, see the See Also section of this topic, which is visible when you are connected to the Internet.