Introduction Microsoft Excel 2010

Introduction Excel 2010:

Open Excel:

To open Excel, choose Start > All Programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Excel 2010. When you launch Excel, the application opens a blank document, called a workbook, as illustrated in Figure 1-1. With all of the visual stimuli found in the number of buttons, cons, rows, and columns, even a blank Excel document might appear overwhelming, but take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with all of these elements and you’ll be ready to begin entering your own data.

Figure A spreadsheet program is a software application that organizes your data into horizontal rows and vertical columns. That portion of Excel is called the worksheet area. Rows are numbered and columns are identified by letters. Above the worksheet area, the Ribbon is a collection of  the commands you will use within Excel.

Apart from the Ribbon, which will be discussed later in this chapter, you will need to be ware of several other elements (see Figure 1-2).

·        Title bar: At the top of the application you see a title bar that shows the application name and the file name.

·        Active cell: The currently selected cell is called the active cell. The active cell has a thick border around it.

·        Name box: Shows the cell address, or name, of the active cell. You can use the range name feature to customize this name. (See “Working with Range Names” later in this chapter.)

·        Insert Function button: Opens the Insert Function dialog box. (See Chapter 3, Using Excel Functions.”)

·        Formula bar: Displays the contents of the active cell.

·        Scroll bars: Excel worksheets have both horizontal and vertical scroll bars.

·        Sheet tabs: A new Excel Workbook opens with three worksheets. You can delete unneeded worksheets, or add extra worksheets to suit your needs.

·        Status bar: At the bottom of the Excel screen is the status bar that provides

feedback to you of the current state of your worksheet. The status bar will indicate if the worksheet is ready for data entry, busy calculating, or has identified an error.

Zeroing in on the Ribbon:

First introduced in Microsoft Office 2007, the Ribbon (see Figure 1-3) is common  to all Microsoft Office applications. It visually displays all of the most commonly used options needed to perform a particular task. The Ribbon groups these  command buttons under functional tabs.

·        Excel program icon: Clicking on the program icon in the upper-left corner of  Excel displays a menu with options for minimizing and closing the application.

·        Quick Access Toolbar: The Quick Access Toolbar provides access to basic file  functions. By default, those functions are Save, Undo, and Redo.  However, as demonstrated in Figure 1-4, you can click the Customize  Quick Access Toolbar arrow and choose More Commands from the drop-down menu to add the commands that you use most frequently.

Minimize the Ribbon button:

Click the Minimize the Ribbon button to remove all but the Tabs from the Ribbon, as shown in Figure 1-5. When the Ribbon is minimized, this button changes to become the Expand the Ribbon button. You can temporarily expand the Ribbon by clicking any of the tabs. 

Tabs:

Excel command buttons are organized under eight tabs: File, Home, Insert, Page Layout, Formulas, Data, Review, and View. Other tabs appear only when needed. For instance, the Chart Tools tab appears only after you have selected a chart in Excel. Clicking different tabs changes the command options visible on the Ribbon.

Groups:

Each of the tabs is divided into several collections of related tasks. These collections are called groups.

Dialog Box Launcher:

Some of the groups on the Ribbon include a small arrow icon in the bottom-right corner of the group. This icon is called the Dialog Box Launcher, and clicking it opens a dialog box to refine how the command is applied to your file. Figure 1-6 shows the Insert Chart dialog box launched from the Charts group on the Insert tab.

Galleries:

A Gallery is most often a collection of related formatting options. For instance, in Figure 1-7, clicking the down arrow next to the Themes command button on the Page Layout tab displays a preview of all themes that can be applied to your document. Make a selection from the gallery or click the arrow again to close the gallery.