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Microsoft Excel 2007: Ribbons And Tabs
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The Excel Ribbon is the most important aspect of the Excel interface and contains the great majority of the program's commands. The Ribbon is arranged into a series of Tabs, each of which contains a series of related commands. Tabs are accessed simply by simply clicking on the name of each Tab. Within each Tab, commands are organised in groups: the name of each group is displayed at the bottom of the group.
The Home Tab contains the most frequently used commands. Here you'll find the commands that are used all the time; commands related to the clipboard such as Cut Copy and Paste; commands for formatting the data within your cells; changing the font; changing the alignment and the appearance of numbers; commands for modifying cells such as inserting rows and columns; and finally commands for sorting and editing data.
The Insert Tab, as the name suggests, is used to add or insert elements into your worksheets. Some of these elements are part and parcel of Excel such as charts; other elements need to be inserted from outside the program like images, for example, adding a company logo to an Excel form.
The Page Layout Tab contains commands to control the appearance of your worksheets as a whole. Here, you'll find settings like the margins, orientation, the size of paper and the area of the worksheet to be printed. You will normally visit the page layout Tab before printing your worksheets.
The Formulas Tab contains controls for dealing with the most powerful aspect of Excel: formulas and functions. Here you can insert functions, search for errors in formulas and control the way in which Excel works with formulas and carries out calculations.
In the Data Tab you will find commands for importing information into Excel from sources such as databases; sorting information and also filtering (in other words returning data which matches certain criteria).
Here you'll also find advanced data validation tools, tools for consolidation and for performing "What if?" analysis. Also, in the outline group, you will find commands for assigning different levels to different rows and columns of the worksheet. These outline commands make large worksheet easier to navigate and to manage.
The general theme of the Review Tab is checking and protection. It is here that you will find the spell-checker, facilities for users to add comments to a worksheet and commands for protecting worksheets and workbooks.
The View Tab houses controls relating to the way in which your workbooks and worksheets are viewed on screen. It contains commands for zooming in and out on your work and for displaying several worksheets and workbooks simultaneously.
The Developer Tab relates to automation. It is here that you'll find commands for creating macros. Macros enable you to write Visual Basic code which can automate just about every aspect of Microsoft Excel.
About the Author
Author is a developer and trainer with Macresource Computer Solutions, a UK IT training company offering Microsoft Excel 2007 training courses in London and throughout the UK.
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