Excel 2010 For Dummies
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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. Additionally, there's a Help command with add-ins, an Options command that enables you to change many of Excel's default settings, and an Exit option to quit the program.

  • Quick Access toolbar that contains buttons you can click to perform common tasks, such as saving your work and undoing and redoing edits. You can customize the Quick Access toolbar by adding command buttons.

  • Ribbon that contains the bulk of the Excel commands arranged into a series of tabs from the Home tab through the View tab.

  • 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). Tabs for selecting new worksheets appear in the lower left of this area. You'll also find 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 and any special keys you engage and enables you to select a new worksheet view and to zoom in and out on the worksheet.

    The Excel 2010 program window that appears when you start the program.
    The Excel 2010 program window that appears when you start the program.

About This Article

This article is from the book:

About the book author:

Greg Harvey, PhD, is president of Mind Over Media, Inc. He is the author of all editions of Excel For Dummies, Excel All-in-One For Dummies, Excel Workbook For Dummies, and Windows For Dummies Quick Reference. He's also an experienced educator.

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