FORMATTING: Since people use Excel for presenting data, Microsoft has added a variety of formatting options to Excel over the years. Not only can you use random cells of your spreadsheet for titles, explanations and disclaimers, you can also insert pictures, charts, colors, fonts, word art, formulas, clip arts and many other gimmicks that make looking at the data more convenient and enjoyable for humans. But while a human can easily tell where the data starts and where it ends, a machine cannot distinguish between cells that contain data and all the clutter around it.