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If you're looking for a quick rundown on what's new and what's cool in Excel 2007 formatting features, look no further! These new features include the Ribbon (with most formatting and editing commands located on the Home tab of the Ribbon), the new Format As Table command, and enhancements to conditional formatting features.
The Ribbon
The Ribbon radically changes the way you work in Excel 2007. Instead of having to memorize (or guess) on which pull-down menu or toolbar Microsoft put the particular formatting (or other) command you want to use, their designers and engineers came up with the Ribbon that always shows you all the most commonly used options needed to perform a particular Excel task.
The Home tab of the new Excel Ribbon (shown in Figure 1) literally brings home all the commonly-used formatting and editing features. Gone are the days when you have to fish for the right button on some long, drawn-out toolbar or on some partially-deployed pull-down menu. Now all you have to do is find the group that holds the command button you need and click it — what could be easier!
Figure 1: Excel's Ribbon consists of a series of tabs containing command buttons arranged into different groups.
The Ribbon is made up of the following components:
- Tabs for each of Excel's main tasks that bring together and display all the commands commonly needed to perform that core task
- Groups that organize related command buttons into subtasks normally performed as part of the tab's larger core task
- Command buttons within each group that you select to perform a particular action or to open a gallery from which you can click a particular thumbnail — note that many command buttons on certain tabs of the Excel Ribbon are organized into mini-toolbars with related settings
- Dialog Box launcher in the lower-right corner of certain groups that opens a dialog box containing a bunch of additional options you can select
 | Additional so-called contextual tabs are added to the Ribbon as needed when formatting and editing specific elements (such as data tables, charts, pivot tables, and graphic objects). |
Format As Table command
This brand new feature is a real keeper. By formatting a table of data with one of the many table styles available on the Table Styles drop-down gallery, you're assured that all new entries made to the table are going to be formatted in the same manner as others in similar positions in the table.
Better yet, all new entries to the table are automatically considered as part of the table when it comes to formatting, sorting, and filtering. By the way, filtering the table's data is made easy by the automatic addition of filter buttons to the top row of column headings.
Conditional formatting enhancements
Conditional formatting is technically not a new Excel feature, having existed in many of the previous versions. In addition to giving you the ability to define formatting when the values in cells meet certain conditions, you can now instantly apply one of many different Data Bars, Color Scales, and Icon Sets to the cell selection merely by clicking the set's thumbnail in their respective pop-up palettes.
When you apply a set of Data Bars to a cell range, the length of each bar in the cell represents its value relative to the others. When you apply a set of Color Scales, each shade of color in the cell represents its value relative to the others. And when you apply one of the Icon Sets, each icon in the cell represents its value relative to the others.
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