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Excel 2007 For Dummies

Introducing the Excel 2007 User Interface


Adapted From: Excel 2007 For Dummies

The new Excel 2007 user interface scraps its previous reliance on a series of pull-down menus, task panes, and multitudinous toolbars, replacing them with the Ribbon, a single strip at the top of the worksheet designed to put the bulk of the Excel commands you use at your fingertips at all times.

Add a single remaining Office pull-down menu and sole Quick Access toolbar along with a few remaining task panes (Clipboard, Clip Art, and Research) to the Ribbon and you end up with the easiest to use Excel ever.

When you first launch Excel 2007, the program opens up the first of three new worksheets (named Sheet1) in a new workbook file (named Book1) inside a program window.

The Excel program window is made up of the following components:

  • Office Button that when clicked opens the Office pull-down menu containing all the file related commands including Save, Open, Print, and Exit as well as the Excel Options button that enables you to change Excel's default settings
  • Quick Access toolbar that contains buttons you can click to perform common tasks such as saving your work and undoing and redoing edits, and which you can customize by adding command buttons
  • Ribbon that contains the bulk of the Excel commands arranged into a series of tabs ranging from Home through View
  • Formula bar that displays the address of the current cell along with the contents of that cell
  • Worksheet area that contains all the cells of the current worksheet identified by column headings using letters along the top and row headings using numbers along the left edge, with tabs for selecting new worksheets and a horizontal scroll bar to move left and right through the sheet on the bottom, and a vertical scroll bar to move up and down through the sheet on the right edge
  • Status bar that keeps you informed of the program's current mode, any special keys you engage, and enables you to select a new worksheet view and to zoom in and out on the worksheet
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