This
is the first in a short series of tutorials on the basics of working
in Microsoft Excel. In this tutorial, we look at basic screen
elements and toolbars.
Basic
Screen Elements
Let's
start at the top and work our way down.
The
name of the current workbook is always displayed at the top of the
program screen. When a new workbook is opened, Excel names the
workbook "Book1" by default. This changes when the
file is saved and a name is given. Minimize, Maximize/Restore,
and Close buttons are in the upper right-hand corner.
The top set of buttons is for the program itself. The bottom
set is for the current file, and will minimize, maximize and close
the file within Excel without affecting the program.
The
Menu Bar contains all the features and tools used in
Excel. You will learn about the menus by working in Excel and
throughout the tutorials on this site.
The
Standard Toolbar, Formatting Toolbar, and Formula
Bar are present on the screen by default and are the tools most
often used. These are gone over in great detail in the next
section of this tutorial.
The
Active Cell is the cell where data is being entered.
Single-click on any cell to make it active and start typing
data. You do not need to see a flashing cursor within the cell
before you start typing. If you need to edit the contents of a
cell, double-click on the cell and a cursor will appear for you to
make changes. Formulas and functions can also be entered in
active cells. The small black square in the lower right-hand
corner of the active cell is called the Fill Handle. This is
used to automatically fill in common series, sequences and
patterns. To learn more, see my tutorial on Using
AutoFill.
In
the lower left-hand corner, you will find page navigation. The
active sheet tab is shown in white. You can move throughout
the sheets in a workbook by clicking on the sheet tabs. To
quickly give the sheet a different name, double-click on the sheet
tab, type a new name, and press Enter. To learn more,
see the tutorial on Organizing Worksheets.
The arrows to the left of the sheet tabs help you to manage
workbooks with many sheet tabs. The middle set of arrows allow
you to go to the previous or next sheet. The outer arrows take
you to the first and last sheet in the workbook.
Basic
Toolbars
The
Standard Toolbar
The
first half of the Standard toolbar contains the following
tools:
New:
This opens a new, blank workbook. Any other open workbooks
remain open until you close them. You can navigate between
open workbooks by choosing the workbook name from the Window
menu on the Menu Bar.
Open:
This button opens an existing workbook file. Choosing the
button opens a box that allows you to navigate and find which
file you want to open.
Save:
When a file is saved for the first time, the Save as
dialog box opens and allows you to give the file a name.
If the file has previously been saved, this button saves the
changes under the same file name.
Print:
The Print button prints the file with the default printer
settings. This normally means one copy of the entire
workbook. To choose more options before printing, choose Print
from the File menu. To learn how to add headers and
footers, work with page breaks and more, see the tutorial on Setting
Print Features.
Preview:
Choosing this button lets you see a preview of what the
worksheet will look like when printed. To return to the
main Excel screen, choose the Close button on the print
preview screen.
Spell
Check: Ah, good ol' spell check! You can run a
spell check on the sheet by choosing this button or by pressing F7.
The Spelling dialog box is displayed and offers
suggestions for the misspelled word. In essence, select
the correct word and choose the Change button. If a
word comes up during the spell check that is correctly spelled
in the sheet (like a proper name) you can choose the Add
button to add it to the dictionary so that it will not come up
during spell check again. Look for a more detailed
tutorial on using spell check coming soon.
Cut,
Copy & Paste: This set of buttons allows
you to move data around on the worksheet without having to
retype and manually delete. Cut removes the data
and holds it on the clipboard (don't look for the clipboard -
just know it's there) so that you can paste the data in a new
location. Copy leaves the data in the original
location and also places it on the clipboard to be pasted in an
additional location. Paste puts whatever is
currently on the clipboard (whatever you cut or copied) in the
new location. So, you would either cut or copy, then move
the active cell to the new location and choose Paste. For
a list of shortcuts for this and much more, see the tutorial on Excel
Shortcuts.
Format
Painter: This is a very handy tool. Use it to
"paint" the format from one area to another. In
other words, if you have formatted a number or text to be bold
with a particular font and would like to use that same format on
another number, select the cell with the original number, choose
this button and select the cell where you would like the same
formatting. Excel places the same formatting on the new
number. You can also double-click this button if you have
more than one cell that needs the same format of the original
cell. This allows you to click on several cells and apply
the format. In this case, when you are done formatting,
click the Format Painter button again to turn it off.
Undo:
Choosing this button lets you "undo" your last action
and is a lifesaver. You can click this button more than
once to undo several actions. You can also click the small
drop-down arrow next to the Undo button and undo several
actions at once. Keep in mind, that choosing an action to
undo from the drop-down arrow means that everything you did after
that action is also undone.
Redo:
Works the same way as Undo, but instead will
"redo" an action - or several actions if you use the
drop-down arrow.
Notice: You have the author's
permission to use the tutorials on this site for your personal
use only. If you would like to use these tutorials for
training classes or other commercial use, please contact kstille@esmartweb.com.
Distribution in print or on the Web without the author's permission
is strictly prohibited.
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