Excel 2010 For Dummies

Headers and footers typically appear on every page of a report. In Excel 2010, a header is printed in the top margin, and a footer is printed in the bottom margin. Headers and footers are often used to identify the document and to display the page numbers and the date and time of printing. Unless you specify otherwise, Excel does not automatically add either a header or footer to a new workbook.

Excel 2010's AutoCorrect feature already knows to automatically fix two initial capital letters in an entry, to capitalize the names of the days of the week, and to replace a set number of text entries and typos with particular substitute text. But you can use AutoCorrect to alert Excel to your own particular typing errors and tell the program how it should automatically fix them for you.

When entering vast quantities of data in Excel 2010, it's easy for typos to creep into your work. How you correct mistakes in Excel 2010 depends upon whether you notice the error before or after you complete the cell entry. You can edit mistakes as they happen, or after you've entered data in cells: If you catch the mistake before you complete a cell entry, you can delete characters by pressing Backspace as necessary.

You can use the View Side by Side command button on the View tab in Excel 2010 to quickly and easily do a side-by-side comparison of any two worksheet windows that you have open. When you click this button after opening two workbook windows, Excel automatically tiles the windows. To compare two worksheets side by side, follow these steps: Open the two workbooks you want to compare.

When you add a chart to an Excel 2010 worksheet, a Chart Tools Design tab appears in the Ribbon. You can use the buttons on the Chart Tools Design tab to customize the chart type and style. The Design tab contains the following groups of buttons: Type group Click the Change Chart Type button in the Type group to change the type of chart, for example, to change from a bar chart to a line chart or a pie chart.

Microsoft Excel 2010 supports the use of an XML-based file format called the Microsoft Office Open XML format. This file format carries the filename extension .xlsx for Excel workbooks and .xlsm for macro-enabled workbooks. The XML-based file format — introduced in Excel 2007 — is more efficient, resulting in smaller file sizes and offering superior integration with external data sources.

You can tell right away that an Excel 2010 formula has gone haywire because instead of a nice calculated value, you get a strange, incomprehensible message. This weirdness, in the parlance of Excel 2010 spreadsheets, is an error value. Its purpose is to let you know that some element -- either in the formula itself or in a cell referred to by the formula -- is preventing Excel from returning the anticipated calculated value.

Excel 2010 offers a document recovery feature that can help you if your computer crashes due to a power failure or an operating system freeze or shutdown. Excel's AutoRecover feature saves your workbooks at regular intervals. In the event of a computer crash, Excel displays a Document Recovery task pane the next time you start Excel after rebooting the computer.

When a clip art image or imported picture is selected, Excel 2010 adds the Picture Tools Format tab to the Ribbon. Use the commands on the Picture Tools Format tab if you need to edit or format clip art or pictures in your worksheets. The Picture Tools Format tab is divided into four groups: Adjust, Picture Styles, Arrange, and Size.

To begin to work on a new Excel 2010 spreadsheet, you simply start entering information in the first sheet of the Book1 workbook window. Here are a few simple guidelines (a kind of data-entry etiquette) to keep in mind when you create an Excel spreadsheet in Sheet1 of a new workbook: Whenever you can, organize your information in tables of data that use adjacent (neighboring) columns and rows.

At first glance, you might have trouble making sense of the many menus, tabs, columns, and rows of the Excel 2010 user interface. This Cheat Sheet will help you navigate your way by showing you keystrokes for moving the cell cursor to a new cell, simple rules of data-entry etiquette, common causes of some formula error values, and a quick list of the best Excel 2010 features.

When you start Microsoft Office Excel 2010, you see the first of three worksheets (named Sheet1) in a workbook file (named Book1) inside a program window. The Excel 2010 program window is made up of the following components: File tab that when clicked opens the new Backstage view — a menu on the left that contains all the document- and file-related commands, including Info (selected by default), Save, Save As, Open, Close, Recent, New, Print, and Save & Send.

The Formula bar in Excel 2010 displays the cell address and the contents — data or a formula — of the current cell. Use the Formula bar to enter or edit formulas and cell data and assign names to cells. The Formula bar appears just below the Ribbon and is divided into three sections: Name box: The left-most section that displays the address of the current cell Formula bar buttons: The middle section that displays an indented circle on the left (used to narrow or widen the Name box) with the Insert Function button (labeled fx) on the right; you also see a Cancel (an X) and an Enter (a check mark) button in this middle section of the Formula bar when you enter or edit cell data Cell contents: The third, right-most white area to the immediate right of the Insert Function button that takes up the rest of the bar and expands down as necessary for lengthy cell entries What you type appears in the current cell and on the Formula bar.

You can filter and sort the data in an Excel 2010 pivot table to display a subset of data arranged the way you want to view it. Excel automatically adds drop-down filter arrows to the Report Filter field as well as the labels for the Column and Row fields. These filter arrows enable you to filter out all but certain entries in any of these fields, and in the case of the Column and Row fields, to sort their entries in the table.

The Chart Tools Format tab in Excel 2010 contains command buttons that make it easy to format particular chart elements after you select them. Excel gives you a choice of methods for selecting individual chart elements: Click the element directly in the chart to select it — use the ScreenTip that appears at the mouse pointer to identify the chart object before you click to select it.

In Excel 2010, you can add borders to individual cells to emphasize or define sections of a worksheet or table. Use the Borders button in the Font group on the Home tab to add borders of varying styles and colors to any or all sides of the cell selection. Don't confuse the borders that you add to accent a particular cell selection with the gridlines normally used to define cell borders in the worksheet — borders that you add are printed whether or not you print the worksheet gridlines.

After you've created an Excel 2010 table, you can choose from several methods for adding records to the table. Before you add records, the range must already be formatted as a table. To format a worksheet range as a table, select a cell in the range and then click the Table button on the Insert tab. The most direct way to add new data is to press the Tab key when the cell cursor is in the last cell of the last record (row).

With Excel 2010's SmartArt graphic objects, you can quickly and easily construct fancy graphical lists and diagrams in your worksheet. SmartArt lists and diagrams come in a wide array of configurations (including a bunch of organizational charts and various process and flow diagrams) that let you combine your own text with the predefined graphic shapes.

You can assign a macro created in Excel 2010 to a custom button on the Quick Access toolbar and then run it by clicking that button. This provides quicker access to a macro than using the Macro dialog box.Click the File tab and then click Options.The Excel Options dialog box appears. Click the Quick Access Toolbar tab.

You can add emphasis to selected cells in an Excel 2010 worksheet by changing the fill color or applying a pattern or gradient effect to the cells. If you're using a black-and-white printer, restrict your color choices to light gray in the color palette and use a simple pattern for cells that contain text so that the text remains legible.

With themes, Excel 2010 provides a way to uniformly format all the text and graphics in a worksheet. You can do this by simply clicking the thumbnail of the new theme you want to use in the Themes drop-down gallery, which you open by clicking the Themes button on the Page Layout tab of the Ribbon. Use Live Preview to see how the text and graphics you’ve added to your worksheet appear in the new theme before you click its thumbnail.

In Excel 2010, you can apply a predefined table format to a cell range. The Format as Table feature displays an extensive Table gallery with formatting thumbnails divided into three sections — Light, Medium, and Dark — each of which describes the intensity of the colors used by the various formats.Click any cell within the group of cells you want to format as a table.

Many Excel 2010 worksheets use percentages in the form of interest rates, growth rates, inflation rates, and so on. When you apply the Percent Style format to a value that has already been entered in a cell, Excel multiplies the value by 100 and displays the result with a percent sign. To insert a percentage in a cell as you are entering a value, type the percent sign (%) after the number.

You can open multiple workbook windows in Excel 2010 and arrange them into windows of varying displays so that you can view different parts of a worksheet from each workbook on the screen at one time. Follow these steps to arrange workbook windows in Excel 2010: Open the workbooks that you want to arrange. You'll want to open at least two workbooks and select the worksheet in each workbook that you want to display.

Excel 2010 provides a variety of number formats that you can apply to the values (numbers) you enter in a worksheet to make the data easier to interpret. These number formats include currency, accounting, percentage, date, time, fraction, and scientific, as well as a few special formats. When you enter a value into a cell, Excel takes a guess at what type of number it is and how it should be formatted.

When you first start using Microsoft Excel 2010, Excel wants to save files in the Documents (Windows 7 or Vista) or the My Documents folder (Windows XP) under your user name on your hard drive. So, for example, the directory path of the default folder where Excel 2010 automatically saves new workbook files on a computer running Windows 7 or Vista is C:Users<i>username</i>Documents However, the directory path of the default folder where Excel 2010 automatically saves new workbook files on a computer running Windows XP is C:Documents and Settings<i>user</i><i>name</i>My Documents The generic Documents or My Documents folder may not be where you want new workbooks you create to be automatically saved.

Microsoft Excel 2010 includes a built-in spell checker that can catch and correct spelling errors and typos in your worksheets. Excel 2010's spell checker normally looks for misspellings only in the current worksheet. If you have a multiple-sheet workbook, you can select the sheets you want to check before you start the spell checker.

To create a one-variable data table to perform what-if analysis in Excel 2010, you enter a series of input values either across columns of a single row or down the rows of a single column. The formulas in a one-variable data table refer to only one input cell: a row input cell for input values entered across a row or a column input cell for input values entered down a column.

A pivot table is a special type of summary table that's unique to Excel. Pivot tables are great for summarizing values in a table because they do their magic without making you create formulas to perform the calculations. Pivot tables also let you play around with the arrangement of the summarized data. It's this capability of changing the arrangement of the summarized data on the fly simply by rotating row and column headings that gives the pivot table its name.

After using Scenario Manager to add scenarios to a table in a worksheet, you can have Excel 2010 produce a summary report. This report displays not only the changing and resulting values for all the scenarios you've defined but also the current values in the changing cells in the worksheet table at the time you generate the report.

You can create a table in Excel 2010 to help you manage and analyze related data. The purpose of an Excel table is not so much to calculate new values but rather to store lots of information in a consistent manner, making it easier to format, sort, and filter worksheet data. An Excel table is not the same as a data table that can be used for what-if analysis.

To create a two-variable data table to perform what-if analysis in Excel 2010, you enter two ranges of possible input values for the same formula: a range of values for the Row Input Cell in the Data Table dialog box across the first row of the table and a range of values for the Column Input Cell in the dialog box down the first column of the table.

After you create a pivot table in Excel 2010, you can create a pivot chart to display its summary values graphically. You also can format a pivot chart to improve its appearance. You can use any of the chart types available with Excel when you create a pivot chart. Create a pivot chart Follow these steps to create a pivot chart based on an existing pivot table in a worksheet: Create the pivot table and then click any cell in the pivot table on which you want to base the chart.

The Quick Access toolbar in Excel 2010 appears above the Ribbon and includes buttons for commonly used commands. By default, the Quick Access toolbar contains only the Save, Undo, and Redo commands, but you can add more. To display the Quick Access toolbar beneath the Ribbon, click the Customize Quick Access Toolbar button (on the right end of the toolbar) and choose Show Below the Ribbon on the drop-down menu.

You can use the Cut, Copy, and Paste commands to move or copy information in an Excel 2010 worksheet. These commands use the Office Clipboard as a kind of electronic halfway house where the information you cut or copy remains until you decide to paste it somewhere. Because of this Clipboard arrangement, you can use these commands to move or copy information to any other worksheet open in Excel or even to other programs running in Windows (such as a Word document).

In Excel 2010, when you need to delete data, remove formatting in a cell selection, or remove entire cells, rows, or columns, you have many options. Excel can perform two kinds of cell deletions in a worksheet: clearing cell data and deleting the cell. Clearing cell contents Clearing cells just deletes or empties the cell's contents without removing the cell from the worksheet, which would alter the layout of surrounding cells.

Many Excel 2010 worksheets include financial data, so you'll likely use either the Currency or Accounting number format when working with this data. You can easily assign these formats to selected cells by choosing Currency or Accounting from the Number Format drop-down list in the Number group on the Home tab.

Drag-and-drop is a mouse technique that you can use in Excel 2010 to pick up a cell selection and drop it into a new place on the worksheet. Although drag and drop is primarily a technique for moving cell entries around a worksheet, you can also adapt it to copy a cell selection.Select a cell range.This method works with both a single cell and a contiguous range of cells.

As you work with Excel 2010 tables, you will often find the need to edit or delete records and perform routine maintenance on the table. You can edit the records manually in the worksheet or use a data form to make the necessary changes. For example, you can use the data form to locate a record you want to change and then edit the particular fields.

Formulas are the real workhorses of an Excel 2010 worksheet. If you set up a formula properly, it computes the correct answer when you enter it into a cell. You can set up a formula from the functions excel provides or create your own custom excel function. From then on, it keeps itself up to date, recalculating the results whenever you change any of the values that the formula uses.

Excel 2010's Scenario Manager enables you to create and save sets of different input values that produce different calculated results as named scenarios (such as Best Case, Worst Case, and Most Likely Case). The key to creating the various scenarios for a table is to identify the various cells in the data whose values can vary in each scenario.

Just as you can filter an Excel 2010 pivot table to display a subset of data, you also can filter a pivot chart so that it shows just the information you want it to show. When you graph the data in an pivot table using a typical chart type, such as column, bar, or line that uses both an x- and y-axis, the Row Labels in the pivot table appear along the x- or category-axis at the bottom of the chart, and the Column Labels in the pivot table become the data series that are delineated in the chart's legend.

When you work with Excel 2010 tables, you can use keystrokes or a data form to move through table records until you find the one you want to edit or delete. In larger tables, you can use search criteria in the data form to look up a record. These methods also work with a normal range of data — one that has not been converted to a table using the Table button on the Insert tab.

Excel 2010 makes formatting a new pivot table you've added to a worksheet as quick and easy as formatting any other table of data. The PivotTable Tools Design tab includes special formatting options for pivot tables. Refine the Pivot Table style Follow these steps to apply a style to a pivot table: Select any cell in the pivot table and click the Design tab.

When charting values, Excel 2010 isn't always careful how it formats the values that appear on the y-axis (or the x-axis when using some chart types). If you're not happy with the way the values appear on either the x-axis or y-axis, you can easily change the formatting.Select the axis values you want to format.

The Selection and Visibility task pane in Excel 2010 enables you to control whether various graphic objects in the worksheet are hidden or displayed. Hiding objects can make it easier to select other objects that are hidden or partially hidden behind them. The way you open the Selection and Visibility task pane depends upon the type of graphic object you've selected in the worksheet: Charts: On the Chart Tools Format tab, click the Selection Pane button in the Arrange group.

In Excel 2010, you can use Web queries to import data directly from various Web pages that contain financial and other types of statistical data that you need to work with in a worksheet.Click the From Web button in the Get External Data group on the Data tab.Excel opens the New Web Query dialog box containing the Home page for your computer’s default Web browser.

Clip art is the name given to over 150,000 readymade illustrations offered by Microsoft for use in its various Microsoft Office programs, including Excel 2010. Clip art drawings are so numerous that the images are classified into different categories ranging from Abstract to Web Elements.On the Insert tab, click the Clip Art button in the Illustrations group.

If you need to enter a bunch of numbers in an Excel 2010 worksheet that use the same number of decimal places, you can turn on Excel’s Fixed Decimal setting and have the program enter the decimals for you. All you do is type the digits and complete the entry in the cell. For example, to enter the numeric value 100.

In Excel 2010, you can insert digital photos or scanned images that are saved as graphics files into your worksheets. Adding pictures to an Excel spreadsheet can create a calming effect, especially if the spreadhseet is delivering bad news.On the Insert tab, click the Picture button in the Illustrations group.

You can insert graphic shapes such as lines, rectangles, block arrows, stars, and other basic shapes in your Excel 2010 charts and worksheets. All you need to do is select a thumbnail on the Shapes drop-down gallery on the Insert tab of the Ribbon and draw the shape in the worksheet.On the Insert tab, click the Shapes button in the Illustrations group.

Excel 2010 makes it easy to enter symbols, such as foreign currency marks, as well as special characters, like trademark and copyright symbols, into cells. These symbols are available in the Symbol dialog box. To add a special symbol or character to a cell entry, follow these steps:Click the Insert tab and then click the Symbol button in the Symbols group.

Pivot tables are much more dynamic than standard Excel 2010 tables because they are so easy to manipulate and modify. Excel makes it just as easy to change which fields from the original data source are displayed in the table as it does originally adding them when a table is first created. In addition, you can instantly restructure the pivot table by dragging its existing fields to new positions on the table.

Excel 2010 automatically embeds new charts on the same worksheet as the source data, but you may find it easier to work with a chart if you move the chart to its own chart sheet in the workbook.On the Chart Tools Design tab, click the Move Chart button to open the Move Chart dialog box.If you don’t see the Chart Tools Design tab, select the chart to make this tab appear.

After you create a new chart in an Excel 2010 worksheet, you can easily move or resize the embedded chart. Whenever an embedded chart is selected (as it automatically is immediately after creating it or after clicking any part of it), the Chart Tools contextual tab with its Design, Layout, and Format tabs appears on the Ribbon, and Excel outlines each group of cells represented in the selected chart in a different color in the worksheet.

In Excel 2010, you may need to move or copy a particular worksheet from one workbook to another. You can use the Move or Copy dialog box to simplify the process. To move or copy worksheets between workbooks, follow these steps: Open the workbook with the worksheet(s) that you want to move or copy and the workbook that is to contain the moved or copied worksheet(s).

Each new workbook you open in Excel 2010 contains three blank worksheets, although you can add more. You can move between the worksheets in an Excel workbook by using the sheet tabs, the Sheet Tab scroll buttons, and keyboard shortcuts. To activate a worksheet for editing, you select it by clicking its sheet tab.

You use the Open dialog box in Office Excel 2010 to open an existing workbook. The appearance and functionality of the Open dialog box differs slightly depending on whether you're running Excel 2010 on Windows 7 or Vista or on Windows XP. If you want to open a workbook that was open recently, you don't have to bother with the Open dialog box.

A basic printing technique you may need in Excel 2010 is printing the worksheet formulas instead of printing the calculated results of the formulas. You can check over a printout of the formulas in your worksheet to make sure that you haven't made a mistake (like replace a formula with a number or use the wrong cell references in a formula) before you distribute the worksheet companywide.

Excel 2010 offers a couple ways to send your Excel data to the printer. The Quick Print button often is all you need — it just sends the current page to the printer to create a single copy. But if your printing needs are different, Excel 2010's Print panel lets you customize how, what, where, and how many you print.

After you finalize an Excel 2010 worksheet by reviewing formulas and proofing text, you should consider protecting cells in the worksheet to guard against any unplanned changes. Each cell in the worksheet can be locked or unlocked. By default, Excel locks all the cells in a protected worksheet and then you can specify which cells you want to unlock for editing (if any).

Excel 2010 includes a Protect Workbook command that prevents others from making changes to the layout of the worksheets in a workbook. You can assign a password when you protect an Excel workbook so that only those who know the password can unprotect the workbook and change the structure or layout of the worksheets.

Excel 2010 can import data from an Access 2010 database table into a worksheet, a process known as making an external data query. After importing the data into Excel, you can then use the Filter buttons attached to the various fields to sort and filter the data as in an Excel table. To make an external data query to an Access database table, follow these steps: In Excel, click the From Access button in the Get External Data group on the Data tab.

The sheet names that Excel 2010 uses for the tabs in a workbook (Sheet1 through Sheet3) are not very descriptive. Luckily, you can easily rename a worksheet tab to whatever helps you remember what the worksheet contains, provided that this descriptive name is no longer than 31 characters.Select the sheet whose tab you want to rename.

As you work in Microsoft Excel 2010, remember to save your work often or you risk losing your data if the computer crashes or the power goes out. When you save an Excel workbook for the first time, you see the Save As dialog box. The appearance and functionality of the Save As dialog box varies depending on whether you're running Excel 2010 on Windows 7 or Vista or on Windows XP.

Microsoft Excel 2010 lets you save your workbook files directly in the PDF (Portable Document Format) or XPS (XML Paper Specification) file format. These formats enable people to open and print your Excel worksheets even if they don't have Excel installed on their computers. Follow these steps to save an Excel 2010 workbook in PDF or XPS format:Click the File tab and choose Save As.

If you want to open a workbook in Excel 2010 but can't remember the filename or location, you can use the Search feature in Microsoft Windows to find the missing workbook. To use the Search feature, you only need to remember a portion of the filename or some of the text contained within the workbook. Searching for workbooks when running Excel 2010 on Windows 7 or Vista When you run Excel 2010 under Windows 7 or Vista, the operating system adds a Search Documents text box (simply called Search in Vista) to the Open dialog box.

In Excel 2010, you can split the worksheet window into separate panes and scroll the worksheet in each pane so that you can easily compare data from two separate worksheet locations. You can make the panes in a workbook window disappear by double-clicking anywhere on the split bar that divides the window. To split a worksheet into two (upper and lower) horizontal panes, you can drag the split bar — located right above the scroll arrow at the very top of the vertical scroll bar — down until the window divides as you want it.

Microsoft Office Excel 2010 provides several methods for starting and exiting the program. You can open Excel by using the Start menu or a desktop shortcut. When you want to exit Excel, you can do so by using the File tab, the Close button, or a keyboard shortcut. Starting Excel 2010 from the Start menu To start Excel 2010 from the Windows Start menu, choose Start→All Programs→Microsoft Office→Microsoft Excel 2010.

In Excel 2010, you can use the AutoFill feature to create a custom list with names, locations, or other items and then use the AutoFill handle to fill these list items in order in a workbook. For example, say your company has offices in several locations and you get tired of typing out the sequence in each new worksheet that requires them.

The Goal Seek feature in Excel 2010 is a what-if analysis tool that enables you to find the input values needed to achieve a goal or objective. To use Goal Seek, you select the cell containing the formula that will return the result you're seeking and then indicate the target value you want the formula to return and the location of the input value that Excel can change to reach the target.

Excel 2010 includes the Research task pane that you can use to search for information using online resources, such as Bing, Encarta Dictionary, Thesaurus, and MSN Money Stock Quotes. Because these resources are online, you must have Internet access available to use the Research task pane.Click the Research button in the Proofing group on the Review tab.

Excel 2010 includes a nifty number format category called Special that contains four formats: Zip Code, Zip Code + 4, Phone Number, and Social Security Number. These Special number formats, described below, really come in handy when creating large tables with this type of data in Excel: Zip Code: Retains any leading zeros in the value (important for zip codes and of absolutely no importance in arithmetic computations).

Microsoft Excel 2010 normally copies all the information in the range of cells you select when you paste the data. Use Excel's Paste Special command to specify other options, such as pasting only the cell contents (without the formatting) or only the formatting (without the cell contents). To paste particular parts of a cell selection, click the Paste button arrow on the Ribbon's Home tab.

The Office Clipboard can store multiple cuts and copies from any Microsoft Office program running under Windows, not just Excel 2010. In Excel, this means that you can continue to paste stuff from the Office Clipboard into a workbook even after finishing a move or copy operation. Use the following techniques to work with the Office Clipboard in Excel 2010: To open the Office Clipboard in its own task pane to the immediate left of the Worksheet area, click the Dialog Box launcher button in the lower-right corner of the Clipboard group on the Ribbon's Home tab.

Use the Wrap Text button on the Home tab of Excel 2010 to wrap lengthy text in a cell by displaying it on multiple lines within the cell. This feature helps you to avoid the problem of having to abbreviate text or widen columns in order to display all the text contained within cells. When you select Wrap Text, Excel continues to use the horizontal and vertical alignment you specify for the cell.

The Status bar appears at the bottom of the Excel 2010 window and keeps you informed of Excel's current mode and any special keys you engage. In addition, you can use the status bar to select a new worksheet view and to zoom in and out on the worksheet. The Status bar contains the following areas: Mode indicator that shows the current state of the Excel program (Ready, Edit, and so on) as well as any special keys that are engaged (Caps Lock, Num Lock, and Scroll Lock) Macro Recording button (small worksheet icon with a red dot) that opens the Record Macro dialog box, where you can set the parameters for a new macro and begin recording it AutoCalculate indicator that displays the average and sum of all the numerical entries in the current selection along with the count of every cell in the selection Layout selector that enables you to select between three layouts for the worksheet area: Normal: Default view that shows the worksheet cells with the column and row headings Page Layout: View that displays rulers, page margins, headers and footers, and shows page breaks for the worksheet Page Break Preview: Enables you to adjust the paging of a report Zoom slider that enables you to zoom in and out on the cells in the worksheet area by dragging the slider to the right or left, respectively View and change settings (such as Zoom and the worksheet view) in the Status bar.

If you need to add new data within an existing Excel 2010 worksheet, you can insert new cells, columns, or rows in the worksheet rather than going through all the trouble of moving and rearranging several individual cell ranges. To insert new cells, rows, or columns in an Excel worksheet, follow these steps: Select the cells, rows, or columns where you want the new, blank cells to appear.

You can merge and center data horizontally or vertically across multiple cells in Excel 2010. You also can unmerge or split a merged cell into its original, individual cells. A common use of merge and center in Excel 2010 is to horizontally center a worksheet title over a table. You can only split a cell that has previously been merged.

By default, Excel 2010 uses the SUM function to create subtotals and grand totals for the numeric field(s) that you include in a pivot table. Some pivot tables, however, require the use of another summary function, such as AVERAGE or COUNT. To change the summary function that Excel uses in a pivot table, follow these steps: Double-click the Sum Of field label that's located at the cell intersection of the first Column and Row Field in a pivot table.

Excel 2010 offers a wide variety of keystrokes for moving the cell cursor to a new cell. When you use one of these keystrokes, the program automatically scrolls a new part of the worksheet into view, if this is required to move the cell pointer. The following table summarizes these keystrokes, including how far each one moves the cell pointer from its starting position.

You can use the horizontal scroll bar in Excel 2010 to scroll left and right in a worksheet and the vertical scroll bar to scroll up and down. The horizontal scroll bar appears at the bottom of the worksheet area, while the vertical scroll bar appears to the right of the worksheet area. Here are some scrolling techniques for navigating in an Excel worksheet: To scroll one column or row at a time in a particular direction, click the appropriate scroll arrow at the ends of the scroll bar.

Microsoft Office Excel 2010 offers a variety of keyboard shortcuts for selecting a new cell. When you use one of these keystrokes, Excel 2010 automatically scrolls a new part of the worksheet into view, if this is required to move the cell cursor. You'll find these keystrokes and their actions in the following table.

When you're ready to add data to a worksheet in a Microsoft Excel 2010 workbook, there are a few simple guidelines (a kind of data-entry etiquette) that you should keep in mind: Try to organize your information in tables of data that use adjacent (neighboring) columns and rows. Start the tables in the upper-left corner of the worksheet and work your way down the sheet, rather than across the sheet.

If you’re looking for a quick rundown on what’s cool in Excel 2010, look no further! Just a cursory glance down the list tells you that the thrust of the features is graphics, graphics, graphics! Conditional Formatting & Sparklines: Conditional formatting in Excel 2010 gives you the ability to define formatting when the values in cells meet certain conditions.

The AutoComplete feature in Excel 2010 anticipates what you might want to enter next based upon text you previously entered. AutoComplete reduces errors and speeds up your work. The AutoComplete feature comes into play only when you're entering a column of text entries. AutoComplete looks at the kinds of entries that you make in a 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.

Add-in programs are small modules that extend the power of Excel 2010 by giving you access to a wide array of features and calculating functions not otherwise offered in the application. There are three different types of add-ins: Built-in add-ins available when you install Excel 2010. Add-ins that you can download for Excel 2010 from Microsoft Office Online.

Near the top-left corner of the Excel 2010 window, you find the green File tab, which provides access to Backstage view. The File tab replaces the Office button (or File menu) in previous versions of Excel and also includes commands new to Excel 2010. The new Backstage view contains all the document- and file-related commands, including Info, Save, Save As, Open, Close, Recent, New, Print, and Save & Send.

Many formulas that you create in Excel 2010 perform multiple operations. Excel follows the order of operator precedence when performing each calculation. This natural order of arithmetic operations is outlined in the table below. You can use parentheses to change the order of operations, even nesting sets of parentheses within each other.

Excel 2010 displays a Paste Options button at the end of a pasted range right after you click the Paste button on the Home tab of the Ribbon or press Ctrl+V to paste cell entries that you copy (not cut) to the Clipboard. When you click this drop-down button or press the Ctrl key, a palette appears with three groups of buttons (Paste, Paste Values, and Other Paste Options).

Slicers are a new feature in Excel 2010 that you can use to filter your pivot tables. Slicers make it a snap to filter the contents of your pivot table on more than one field. Because slicers are Excel graphic objects (albeit some pretty fancy ones), you can move, resize, and delete them just as you would any other Excel graphic.

The Undo feature in Excel 2010 can quickly correct mistakes that you make in a worksheet. The Redo button lets you "undo the Undo." The Undo button appears next to the Save button on the Quick Access toolbar, and it changes in response to whatever action you just took; the Redo button becomes active whenever you use Undo.

For a quick rundown on what’s new in Excel 2010, look no further! The new features and enhancements in Excel 2010 build upon the significant changes in Excel 2007. To learn more from Excel 2010 itself, press F1 and type What's New in the Search box of the Excel 2010 Help window to find details on all the new features in Excel 2010.

The Comma Style format (also known as the thousands separator) in Excel 2010 often accompanies the Accounting number format. Like the Accounting format, the Comma format inserts commas in larger numbers to separate thousands, hundred thousands, millions, and . . . well, you get the idea. The Comma Style format also displays two decimal places and puts negative values in parentheses.

Excel 2010's mini toolbar makes it easy to apply common formatting changes to a cell selection within the worksheet area. The mini toolbar contains these buttons from the specified groups on the Home tab: Font group: Font, Font Size, Increase Font Size, Decrease Font Size, Bold, Italic, Border, Fill Color, and Font Color (all buttons in this group except the Underline button) Alignment group: Center and Merge & Center buttons Number group: Accounting Number Format, Percent Style, Comma Style, Increase Decimal, and Decrease Decimal buttons Clipboard group: Format Painter button.