Microsoft Excel 2013 tips and information

 

✦ File tab   contains

Info, New, Open, Save, Save As, Print, Share, Export, Close, and Account, as well as Options, which enables you to change Excel’s default settings.

✦ Quick Access toolbar: You can click the Save, Undo, and Redo buttons to perform common tasks to save your work and undo and redo editing changes. You can also click the Customize Quick Access Toolbar button to the immediate right of the Redo button to open a drop-down menu containing additional common commands such New, Open, Quick Print, and so on, as well as to customize the toolbar, change its position, and minimize the Ribbon.

✦ Ribbon: Most Excel commands are contained on the Ribbon. They are arranged into a series of tabs ranging from Home through View.

✦ Formula bar: This displays the address of the current cell along with the contents of that cell.

✦ Worksheet area: This area contains all the cells of the current worksheet identified by column headings, which use letters along the top, and row headings, which use numbers along the left edge, with tabs for selecting new worksheets. You use a horizontal scroll bar on the bottom to move left and right through the sheet and a vertical scroll bar on the right edge to move up and down through the sheet.

✦ Status bar: This bar keeps you informed of the program’s current mode and any special keys you engage, and it enables you to select a new worksheet view and to zoom in and out on the worksheet.

 

 

Ripping through the Ribbon

 

✦ Tabs: Excel’s main tasks are brought together and display all the commands commonly needed to perform that core task.

✦ Groups: Related command buttons can be organized into subtasks normally performed as part of the tab’s larger core task.

 ✦ Command buttons: Within each group you find command buttons that you can select to perform a particular action or to open a gallery. Note that many command buttons on certain tabs of the Excel Ribbon are organized into mini toolbars with related settings.

✦ Dialog Box launcher: This button is located in the lower-right corner of certain groups and opens a dialog box containing a bunch of additional options you can select

You can minimize the Ribbon by doing any of the following:

 

✦ Click the Collapse the Ribbon button (the button with the caret symbol in the lower-right corner of the Excel Ribbon).

✦ Double-click a Ribbon tab.

 ✦ Press Ctrl+F1.

✦ Click the Shows Tabs item on the Ribbon Display Options button’s dropdown menu

 

Keeping tabs on the Excel Ribbon

The very first time you launch Excel 2013 and open a new workbook, the Ribbon contains the following seven tabs, proceeding from left to right:

✦ Home: Use this tab when creating, formatting, and editing a spread1] sheet. This tab is arranged into the Clipboard, Font, Alignment, Number, Styles, Cells, and Editing groups.

 ✦ Insert: Use this tab when adding particular elements (including graph [1]ics, pivot tables, charts, hyperlinks, and headers and footers) to a spreadsheet. This tab is arranged into the Tables, Illustrations, Apps, Charts, Reports, Sparklines, Filter, Links, Text, and Symbol groups.

✦ Page Layout: Use this tab when preparing a spreadsheet for printing or reordering graphics on the sheet. This tab is arranged into the Themes, Page Setup, Scale to Fit, Sheet Options, and Arrange groups.

✦ Formulas: Use this tab when adding formulas and functions to a spread1] sheet or checking a worksheet for formula errors. This tab is arranged into the Function Library, Defined Names, Formula Auditing, and Calculation groups. Note that this tab also contains a Solutions group when you activate certain add-in programs, such as Conditional Sum and Euro Currency Tools — see Book I, Chapter 2 for more on Excel add-ins.

✦ Data: Use this tab when importing, querying, outlining, and subtotaling the data placed into a worksheet’s data list. This tab is arranged into the Get External Data, Connections, Sort & Filter, Data Tools, and Outline groups. Note that this tab also contains an Analysis group if you activate add-ins, such as the Analysis Toolpak and Solver Add-In — see Book I, Chapter 2 for more on Excel add-ins.

✦ Review: Use this tab when proofing, protecting, and marking up a spreadsheet for review by others. This tab is arranged into the Proofing, Language, Comments, and Changes groups. Note that this tab also contains an Ink group with a sole Start Inking button if you’re running Excel on a Windows tablet or smartphone or on a laptop or desktop computer that’s equipped with some sort of electronic input tablet.

 

✦ View: Use this tab when changing the display of the Worksheet area and the data it contains. This tab is arranged into the Workbook Views, Show, Zoom, Window, and Macros groups.

 

Adding the Developer tab to the Ribbon If you do a lot of work with macros (see Book VIII, Chapter 1) and XML files in Excel, you should add the Developer tab to the Ribbon. This tab contains all the command buttons normally needed to create, play, and edit macros as well as to import and map XML files. To add the Developer tab to the Excel Ribbon, follow these steps:

1. Click the File menu button followed by the Options item in the backstage view (Alt+FT). The Excel Options dialog box opens in the worksheet view.

2. Select the Customize Ribbon option in the Excel Options dialog box and then click the Developer check box under Main Tabs in the Customize the Ribbon list box on the right. Click OK to finish.

 

The easiest method for selecting commands on the Ribbon — if you know your keyboard at all well — is to press the keyboard’s Alt key and then type the letter of the hot key that appears on the tab you want to select.

Press

Ctrl+C to copy the selection

 Press

 Ctrl+V when you’re ready to paste it.

 

 

 

Adjusting to the Quick Access toolbar

 When you first begin using Excel 2013, the Quick Access toolbar contains only the following three or four buttons:

 ✦ Save: Saves any changes made to the current workbook using the same filename, file format, and location.

✦ Undo: Undo es the last editing, formatting, or layout change you made.

✦ Redo: Reapplies the previous editing, formatting, or layout change that you just removed with the Undo button.

✦ Touch/Mouse Mode (automatically added only to Excel running on touchscreen tablets and computers): Switches between the default mouse mode and touch mode, which puts more space between tabs and their command buttons to facilitate selection with a finger or stylus.