# Styling Excel cells with mso-number-format CSS attribute
If you need to create a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, it is very easy to create an htmlfile with a good ol’ and use the mso-number-format CSS attribute to format your content.
I compiled these some time ago. Below there’s an example html showing how to use these classes, and an image with the output.
| Attribute | Description |
|---------------------|-------------|
|mso-number-format:"0"|NO Decimals|
|mso-number-format:"0\.000"|3 Decimals|
|mso-number-format:"\# \,\# \# 0\.000"|Comma with 3 dec|
|mso-number-format:"mm\/dd\/yy"|Date7|
|mso-number-format:"mmmm\ d\,\ yyyy"|Date9|
|mso-number-format:"m\/d\/yy\ h\:mm\ AM\/PM"|D -T AMPM|
|mso-number-format:"Short Date"|01/03/1998|
|mso-number-format:"Medium Date"|01-mar-98|
|mso-number-format:"d\-mmm\-yyyy"|01-mar-1998|
|mso-number-format:"Short Time"|5:16|
|mso-number-format:"Medium Time"|5:16 am|
|mso-number-format:"Long Time"|5:16:21:00|
|mso-number-format:"Percent"|Percent - two decimals|
|mso-number-format:"0%"|Percent - no decimals|
|mso-number-format:"0\.E+00"|Scientific Notation|
|mso-number-format:"\@"|Text|
|mso-number-format:"\# \ ???\/???"|Fractions - up to 3 digits (312/943)|
|mso-number-format:"\0022£\0022\# \,\# \# 0\.00"|£12.76|
|mso-number-format:"\# \,\# \# 0\.00_ \;\[Red\]\-\# \,\# \# 0\.00\ "|2 decimals, negative numbers in red and signed (1.56 -1.56)|
Example html content. Save the following content as myfile.xls :
```html
2020-02-02-styling-excel-cells-with-mso-number-format-css-attribute-updated-j6i - Preferred Frame Writing
3 decimals
3.45
+Thousands sep
4560
Fraction
0.125
Negatives red
-5
Negatives red
5000
```
When you open the myfile.xls (in whatever version of MS Excel) you should see the cells formatted as intented. Image below.
Notice how cool that the value 0.125 has been converted to its fractional representation!
Cells are being formatted with the
`mso-number-format`
CSS attribute
[Full article here](https://medium.com/my-new-knowledge/styling-excel-cells-with-mso-number-format-css-attribute-71d9da54edae)
*[This post is also available on DEV.](https://dev.to/michrodz/styling-excel-cells-with-mso-number-format-css-attribute-updated-j6i)*
---
- [Preferred Frame Writing on GitHub.com](https://github.com/siran/writing)
(built: 2025-12-11 22:15 EST UTC-5)