How to Install Apps for Office in Excel 2013
Apps for Office are small programs that run inside various Microsoft Office 2013 programs, including Excel 2013, to extend their functionality. There are apps to help you learn about Excel’s features, look up words in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, and even enter dates into your spreadsheet by selecting them on a calendar.
Many of the Apps for Office are available free of charge, whereas others are offered for purchase from the Office Store for a small price. To use any of these apps in Excel 2013, you first need to install them:
Click the Apps for Office button on the Insert tab of the Ribbon.
The Apps for Office drop-down menu appears with a Recently Used Apps section at the top and a See All link at the bottom. The first time you open this menu, the Recently Use Apps section will be blank.
Click the See All link on the Apps for Office drop-down menu.
Excel opens the Apps for Office dialog box containing my Apps and Featured Apps links.
Click the Featured Apps link to display a list of all the Editor’s Picks and Recently Added apps available for Excel 2013.
Excel displays a list of all the Editor’s Picks and Recently Added apps ready to install and use in Excel 2013. Each app in the list is identified by icon, name, its developer, its current user rating, and its price.
To get more information about a particular app in the Editor’s Picks or Recently Added list, click its name or icon in the Insert App dialog box. Otherwise, click the More Apps link to go online and see a complete list of apps.
If you clicked a particular app in the Editor’s Picks or Recently Added list, your default web browser then opens a page on the Microsoft Office Store’s website that gives you detailed information about the app you selected. If you clicked the More Apps link, your browser opens a page on the Office Store showing all the apps available for Excel 2013.
To install the app, click its Add button.
If you’re not signed into your Microsoft account when you click Add, your browser takes you to a signin page where you enter your ID and password. When you are already signed into your Microsoft account and click Add to install a free app, your browser takes you to a confirmation web page. After you click Continue, you are told how to insert the newly installed app.
For apps you must purchase, your browser takes you to a page where you provide your account information. After the purchase is approved, your web browser then takes you to the web page explaining how to insert your newly installed app into Excel.
Click the Close button on your web browser to close it and return to Excel.
Once installed, you can then insert the apps you want to use into the current worksheet. To do this, follow these steps:
If the App s for Office dialog box is not currently open in Excel, open it by selecting Insert→Apps for Office→See All or press Alt+NSAS.
Click the my Apps link in App for Office dialog box.
Excel displays all the Apps for Office currently installed in Excel 2013.
Click the app you want to use in your worksheet to select it and then click the Insert button or press Enter.
Excel then inserts the app into your current worksheet so that you can start using its features. Some Office apps such as the Merriam-webster Dictionary app and QuickHelp Starter open in task panes docked on the right side of the worksheet window. Others, such as Bing Maps and the Mini Calendar and Date Picker, open as graphic objects that float above the worksheet.
To close Office apps that open in docked task panes, you simply click the pane’s Close button. To close Office apps that open as floating graphic objects, you need to select the graphic and then press the Delete key (don’t worry — doing this only closes the app without uninstalling it).
Note that after you start using various apps in Excel, they’re added to the Recently Used Apps section of the Apps for Office button’s drop-down menu. You can then quickly re-open any closed app that appears on this menu simply by clicking it.
If you don’t see any of your installed apps in the Apps for Office dialog box after clicking the my Apps link, click the Refresh link to refresh the list. Use the Manage my Apps link in this dialog box to keep tabs on all the apps you’ve installed for Office 2013 and SharePoint as well as uninstall any app that you’re no longer using.
Excel Glossary
active cell
The worksheet cell that contains the cell cursor. Each worksheet can have only one active cell.
Excel Glossary
AutoComplete
A feature that looks at the entries that you make in a worksheet column and automatically duplicates them in subsequent rows whenever you start a new entry that begins with the same letter or letters as an existing entry in that column.
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AutoCorrect
A feature that alerts Excel 2007 to common typing errors and your own typing errors (that you specify) and tells the program how it should automatically fix them for you.
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AutoFill
An Excel 2007 feature that quickly creates a series of entries based on the data you enter in one or two cells. AutoFill works with days of the week, months of the year, yearly quarters; consecutive series of numbers; and formulas. You also can add your own custom AutoFill series.
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AutoFilter
A feature in Excel 2010 that enables you to temporarily hide everything in a table except the records you specifically want to view, based on criteria you specify.
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Backstage view
A new feature in Excel 2010 — accessible from the green File tab — that enables you to manage files and to view the properties and stats about the workbook file you're editing.
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cell
The intersection of a column and row in the worksheet.
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cell address
The cell identifier, determined by its column letter(s) followed by the row number, as in cell A1, the very first cell of each worksheet at the intersection of column A and row 1.
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cell cursor
The black border that surrounds the active cell in a worksheet.
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clip art
Readymade drawings, illustrations, and photos offered by Microsoft for use in Microsoft Office applications.
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Compatibility Checker
A utility in Excel 2007 and 2010 that you use to find potential compatibility issues if you plan to save an Excel workbook file in the older Excel 97–2003 file format.
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current cell
The worksheet cell that contains the cell cursor. Each worksheet can have only one current cell.
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data table
A range of cells in a worksheet in which you enter a series of possible values that Excel plugs into a formula so you can perform what-if analysis on the data.
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dialog box
A rectangular window with settings and commands that appears when you click a dialog box launcher or certain other commands on the Ribbon.
Excel Glossary
dialog box launcher
A small icon in the lower-right corner of a group of command buttons on the Ribbon that you click to access a dialog box with additional related settings and commands.
Excel Glossary
function
A part of a formula that takes a number of specific arguments and then returns a single value based on those arguments.
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gallery
A drop-down list of thumbnail selections that appears when you click certain command buttons on the Ribbon.
Excel Glossary
group
A section of a tab on the Excel 2007 Ribbon that organizes related command buttons into subtasks normally performed as part of the tab's larger core task. The name of a group appears at the bottom of the group, such as the Font group on the Home tab.
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hyperlink
Specially formatted text that anyone can click to jump to Web sites, move to other cells or workbooks, or create an e-mail message.
Excel Glossary
keyboard shortcuts
A combination of keys that you can press to execute certain commands, as opposed to finding and clicking the commands' buttons on the Ribbon or elsewhere.
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Live Preview
A feature in Excel 2007 that enables you to point to thumbnails on a drop-down gallery to see how a new font, font size, table style, or cell style would look on your selected data before you actually apply it.
Excel Glossary
macro
A series of commands or actions in Excel that are recorded and saved together in a file. You can run the macro whenever you need to perform the task.
Excel Glossary
Name box
The left-most section of the Formula bar that displays the address or name of the current cell.
Excel Glossary
pivot table
A special type of table unique to Excel 2007 that enables you to summarize large amounts of data and pivot or rearrange the table's data to display different summaries of the information it contains.
Excel Glossary
Ribbon
A new feature of the Excel 2007 interface that replaces the menus and toolbars of previous versions; appears at the top of the Excel window, just below the title bar.
Excel Glossary
ScreenTip
A small window that displays descriptive text when you point to but don't click a command on the Ribbon or other objects in a worksheet.
Excel Glossary
sheet tabs
Small tabs near the bottom of a worksheet that you click to move between the worksheets in a workbook. You can assign descriptive names to sheet tabs.
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slicers
New graphic objects in Excel 2010 that enable you to quickly filter the contents of a PivotTable on more than one field.
Excel Glossary
SmartArt
A type of graphic object in Excel 2007 that gives you the ability to quickly and easily construct graphical lists and diagrams in the worksheet.
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sparklines
Tiny graphs (miniature charts) that fit within a single cell in the worksheet, used to show basic trends in data.
Excel Glossary
Status bar
A horizontal bar that appears at the bottom of the Excel 2007 window and keeps you informed of Excel's current mode. In addition, you can use the Status bar to select a new worksheet view and to zoom in and out on the worksheet.
Excel Glossary
tabs
The various "pages" of Excel 2007's Ribbon interface that you click to display command buttons relating to the tab's name, such as Page Layout and Formulas.
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template
A pre-designed worksheet that can be used as a basis for creating new worksheets.
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WordArt
Stylized text objects that you use to add pizzazz and emphasis to headings and other text in Excel 2007 worksheets.
Excel Glossary
workbook
The basic file type that you create when you use Excel 2007. A new workbook consists of three worksheets by default.
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worksheet
The main document that you work in when you enter data into cells within Excel 2007. A worksheet is stored in a workbook file.
Excel Glossary
worksheet area
The portion of an Excel 2007 worksheet in which you enter cell data and add objects such as charts and graphics.
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XPS XML Paper Specification
A file format developed by Microsoft that enables people to open and print documents in XPS Reader without access to the original programs with which the documents were created (such as Excel).
Excel Glossary
Zoom slider
An object on the Status bar in Excel 2007 that enables you to increase the magnification in a worksheet or shrink it down to get an overall picture of the worksheet data.
