Excel 2007 For Dummies
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Finding the Excel 2007 Ribbon equivalents for the buttons that were on the Formatting toolbar in earlier versions of Excel is easy. Each button on the Formatting toolbar is prominently displayed on the Home tab of the Excel 2007 Ribbon. They’re all easy to identify because they use the same icons as before and are located in the Font, Alignment, and Number groups on the Home tab.

Find the Formatting toolbar button equivalents on the Home tab of the Ribbon.
Find the Formatting toolbar button equivalents on the Home tab of the Ribbon.

The Ribbon's Font group

In addition to the Font, Font Size, Bold, Italic, Underline, Borders, Fill Color, and Font Color buttons from the Formatting toolbar, the Font group also contains the following two buttons:

  • Increase Font button that bumps up the current font size a point.

  • Decrease Font button that reduces the current font size by a point.

The Ribbon's Alignment group

The Alignment group of the Home tab includes the Left Align, Center, Right Align, Decrease Indent, Increase Indent, and Merge and Center buttons from the Formatting toolbar of earlier versions, as well as the following new buttons:

  • Top Align button that vertically aligns the data entered into the current cell selection with the top edge of the cell.

  • Middle Align button that vertically centers the data entered into the current cell selection.

  • Bottom Align button that aligns the data entered in the current cell selection with the bottom edge of the cell.

  • Orientation button that opens a pop-menu of orientation options that enable you to change the direction of the text entered into the current cell selection by angling it up or down, converting it to vertical text, turning the text 90 degrees, as well as opening the Alignment tab of the Format Cells dialog box.

  • Wrap Text button that applies the wrap text function to the current cell selection so that Excel expands the row heights as needed to fit all of its text within the current column widths.

The Ribbon's Numbers group

The Numbers contains the Percent Style, Comma, Increase Decimal, and Decrease Decimal buttons from the Formatting toolbar, as well as these new buttons:

  • Accounting Number Format button that enables you to select among several different currency formats, from U.S. dollars to Swiss Francs, as well as to open the Number tab of the Format Cells dialog box with the Accounting number format selected.

  • Number Format button that opens a pop-up menu of different number options, from General through Text, and lets you open the Number tab of the Format Cells dialog box if you need more choices.

About This Article

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About the book author:

Greg Harvey has authored tons of computer books, the most recent being Excel Workbook For Dummies and Roxio Easy Media Creator 8 For Dummies, and the most popular being Excel 2003 For Dummies and Excel 2003 All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies. He started out training business users on how to use IBM personal computers and their attendant computer software in the rough and tumble days of DOS, WordStar, and Lotus 1-2-3 in the mid-80s of the last century. After working for a number of independent training firms, Greg went on to teach semester-long courses in spreadsheet and database management software at Golden Gate University in San Francisco.
His love of teaching has translated into an equal love of writing. For Dummies books are, of course, his all-time favorites to write because they enable him to write to his favorite audience: the beginner. They also enable him to use humor (a key element to success in the training room) and, most delightful of all, to express an opinion or two about the subject matter at hand.
Greg received his doctorate degree in Humanities in Philosophy and Religion with a concentration in Asian Studies and Comparative Religion last May. Everyone is glad that Greg was finally able to get out of school before he retired.

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