Microsoft Excel has no menus or toolbars. However, it does contain a feature called the Office Button which bears a remarkable resemblance to regular menus as well as a Quick Access Toolbar which is a lot like the toolbars found in previous versions of Microsoft Office. In this article, we’ll look at these two features and see how they work.
Using the Office Button
The Office Button is located in the top left of the Excel screen. Clicking on it reveals a menu which resembles the menus found in most programs and, indeed, in old versions of Excel. Using this menu, you can create new documents, open existing documents, save, print and get documents ready for distribution. You can close the active document or quit Excel altogether.
To the right of the Office Button menu is a list of the recently opened files. To the right of each item is a pin icon. Clicking this icon pins that document, which means that it will not disappear from the list of recently opened files; whereas any documents that have not been pinned will eventually disappear from the list as the user creates and opens documents.
The Office Button is also where you will find “Excel Options”. (In previous Excel versions, “Options” was found in the “Tools” menu.) Excel Options are grouped together in a series of categorised tabs located in a column on the left of the screen. One simply clicks on a tab to reveal the options in that category. Excel Options control the way in which the program works. Let’s examine a couple of these options…
The Developer Tab (which is essential when working with macros) is not normally shown when Excel is first installed. If you wish to make it visible, choose “Excel Options” from the Office Button and simply activate the option “Show Developer Tab in the Ribbon”. (This option is found in the “Popular” category).
By default, every new document you create has three worksheets. You may find this unnecessary, or indeed insufficient. If so, you can change the number of sheets which each new work will contain. Simply choose “Excel Options” from the Office Button and enter the number of sheets that you would like each time you create a new workbook. You will find this option in the “Popular” category (“When Creating New Workbooks Include this Many Sheets”).
Excel’s Quick Access Toolbar
The Microsoft Excel Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) is normally located in the top left of the screen, next to the Office button. It has a very similar format to the toolbars found in previous versions of Excel.
By default, the QAT contains just three tools: Save the active workbook, Undo and Redo.
Next to the three default commands is a drop-down menu which allows you to customise the Quick Access Toolbar and specify which buttons are visible and which buttons are hidden.
Each of the options in the drop-down menu is a toggle or switch: if a command is currently active, when you choose it in the menu, it will be disappear from the QAT, and so on.
Another method of customising the QAT is to add your favourite commands from the various Tabs of the Microsoft Excel Ribbon. To add a command, simply right-click on it and choose “Add To Quick Access Toolbar” in the context menu which appears. The command will then appear on the QAT and can be accessed in the normal way.
If you find yourself using the QAT frequently, you may find it useful to display it below the Excel Ribbon. To do this, just choose “Show Below The Ribbon” from QAT drop-down menu; and, of course, you always have the choice of minimising the ribbon by double-clicking on the name of any of the Ribbon Tabs.
Author is an Excel developer and trainer with Macresource Computer Training, an independent computer training company offering Excel Classes in Birmingham and throughout the UK.
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