1

Welcome to Microsoft Excel®

2007
The Excel Window With Office 2007, Microsoft has abandoned the interface
consisting of a menu and a collection of toolbars so common in
all Windows applications until now. Their place has been taken
by a ribbon divided into groups of commands located on named
tabs. Figure 1.1 shows the Excel 2007 window; for this screen
shot, the Excel window was "restored down" to occupy about
half of the monitor screen.

Figure 1.1
It is helpful to know the correct name for the various parts of
the window. This makes using the Help facility more productive
and aids in conversing with other users. It is recommended that
you read this chapter while seated at the computer and
experiment as you read it Remember that pressing the [Esc Ikey
2 A Guide to Microsoft Excel 200 7 for Scientists and Engineers

will back you out of an action you do not wish to pursue.

Title bar: This is at the very top and displays the name of the
currently opened file together with the phrase Microsoft Excel.
To the right are the three controls to minimize, restore, and
close the Excel application.

Office button: This is the name given to the colorful circle in

the top left corner of the window. We can click on this icon to
access commands relating to the file (open, close, and print). At
the bottom of the Officedialog you will find a command to open
a dialog to customize Excel. We will look at this in later
chapters.

Quick Access Toolbar (QAT): This is the only toolbar in Excel

2007. When Excel 2007 is first installed, the QAT holds the
commands Save, Undo, and Redo. However, it may be
customized to hold others. Furthermore, one can change the
location of the QAT from above the ribbon to below the ribbon.

Ribbon: The ribbon stretches across the window under the title
bar. It holds every command that can be used within Excel
2007. In Figure 1.1 the Home tab has been selected, and the
ribbon displays groups of commands that are accessed by
clicking the appropriate icon. The Home tab holds mainly
formatting commands. Use the mouse to open another tab by
clicking it We will see shortly that the ribbon can be minimized
when you wish to see more of the document. The tabs shown in
Figure 1.1 include Developer and Acrobat. We will learn in a
later chapter how to add the Developer tab to the ribbon. The
Acrobattab gets added if you install Adobe" Acrobatf; which is
not part of Microsoft Office products. Additional tabs
(contextual tabs) get displayed when you are performing
certain operations; so when you are working on a chart, the
Chart tab appears.

The appearance of a tab will change with the amount of space

allocated to the Excel window. Figure 1.2 shows the Home tab
when Excel is in full-screen mode. Note how items that were
arranged vertically in Figure 1.1 are now arranged horizontally.
 Welcome to Microsoft Excel 3

Figure 1.2

If you let the mouse pointer hover over a command icon, a

screen tip will appear giving a brief description of the
command's purpose.

Icons with solid inverted triangles T (disclosure triangle) have

associated drop-down menus that present further choices.
When the diagonal arrow [SJ (the dialog launcher) on a group
is clicked, a dialog box opens up. Generally these do not have
new commands but present the group's commands in another
way. Many dialog boxes have tabs either horizontally at the top
or vertically at the left- hand side-see Figures 1.3 and 1.4. You
can navigate from tab to tab with the mouse or with the arrow
keys.

Figure 1.3
4 A Guide to Microsoft Exce/200 7 for Scientists and Engineers

Help button: To the right of the tabs on the ribbon you will find
the Help button. Bydefaultthis connects you to the on-line help
facility at the Microsoft Excel 2007 site.

I ~ X
Minimize, Restore, and Close buttons: To the right of the
Help button are three tools used to minimize, restore, and close
the worksheet. Note that we have one set of these buttons for
the Excel application (on the title bar) and another (on the
ribbon) for the current document.

Figure 1.4

Formula bar and name box: Just under the ribbon is the
formula bar with the name box to the left. In Figure 1.1 the
name box is displaying F15. You will notice that both the F
column heading and the 15 row heading are highlighted and
thatthe cell atthe intersection of this column and row is picked
out by a border. We call this the active cell, and we say that the
name box displays the reference (or address) of the active cell.
Later we shall see that when the active cell contains a literal
(text or number), the formula bar also displays the same thing,
but when the cell holds a formula then the formula bar displays
the actual formula while the cell generally displays the result of
that formula.

Worksheet window: The worksheet window occupies most of

the Excel space. In most cases this window displays a simple
worksheet, but later we will see how to display two or more
concurrently. A workbook may contain worksheets and chart
 Welcome to Microsoft Excel 5

sheets (collectively called sheets); we will concentrate on

worksheets for now.

Sheet tabs: Below the worksheet window we have tools to

navigate from sheet to sheet and to scroll a sheet horizontally.
By default, Excel 2007 opens a new workbook with three
worksheets that can be changed in the Options setting. To the
right of the lastsheettab is a tool to inserta new worksheet. Let
the mouse pointer hover over this tool to discover that the
shortcut is [0- Shiftl+[ill]. To the right of the sheet tabs is the
horizontal scroll tool; the vertical scroll tool is on the right side
of the worksheet

Status bar: Atthe very bottom of the Excel window we have the
status bar. To the left is the mode indicator. When you move to
a cell this displays Ready; when you start typing it becomes
Enter; if you double click a cell (or press the IflJ key) it
becomes Edit. We will ignore the second tool for now. To the
right we have Page View buttons that let us display the
worksheet in different ways, and the Zoom tool that
enlarges/reduces the display. If we experiment with the Page
View buttons, we may notice that the worksheet gets vertical
and horizontal dotted lines. These show how much will fit on a
printed page. Right clicking the status bar brings up a dialog
box that allows you to customize the status bar.

Exercise 1: The The ribbon can be minimized so as to display about five more
rows of a worksheet. Experiment with this as follows:
Ribbon
(a) Double click anyone of the tabs on the ribbon. Most of the
ribbon disappears leaving only the tabs-we say it is
minimized.

(b) Clickanyone of the tabs once and the ribbon is maximized.

It stays maximized until we activate a cell on the
worksheet

(c) Double click one of the tabs. The ribbon is permanently

restored.

(d) Right click anywhere on the ribbon to bring up the

shortcut menu. Click the Minimize Ribbon command.

(e) Restore the ribbon using the right click method.

6 A Guide to Microsoft Exce/200 7 for Scientists and Engineers

Exercise 2: Quick By default the QAT contains three commands: Save, Undo and
Redo. We can add and remove commands in a number of ways;
Access Toolbar we look at one in this exercise. Do not overload the QAT;
keeping it small so that all commands are easy to find preserves
the intention expressed by Quick in its name. One command
that may be handy to have on the QAT is the Quick Print
command. This differs from the normal print command in that
it is executed without first displaying a dialog box.

(a) Click the disclosure triangle T to the right of the QAT to

bring up the dialog shown in Figure 1.5.

(b) Click on the Quick Print item. The dialog closes, and QAT
now displays a printer icon.

(c) Repeat the steps to add Print Preview to the QAT.

Next we will relocate the QAT. Right click on the QAT and in the
shortcut menu selectthe item Show QuickAccess Too/bar Be/ow
Ribbon.

Figure 1.5

(d) We may restore the QAT to its original place in the same
way or by using the shortcut menu we opened in step (a).
Use either way to get the QAT above the ribbon.
 Welcome to Microsoft Excel 7

Exercise 3: Working Some users prefer doing as much as possible from the keyboard
rather than the mouse. Excel 2007 provides an extensive set of
with Shortcuts keyboard shortcuts. Afull description of these would take many
pages. So let's use the tools that Microsoft has provided-an
on-line tutorial. This Exercise presumes you are connected to
the Internet

(a) Click the Help command. In the text box of the Help dialog
type shortcuts. Either press the [.-J I or click the Search
tool. When Excel responds with a list of topics, select
Keyboard shortcuts in the 2007 Office system. Take some
time running this very helpful tutorial; it will review many
of the topics we have covered so far and then tell you all
about keyboard shortcuts.

(b) When you return to Excel, you need to close the Help
dialog by clicking its Close button lID on the title bar.

The Worksheet The worksheet window is the heart of the Excel application. It
is here that we enter and work with data. It is helpful to learn
some terms.

Columns and rows: A worksheet is divided vertically into

columns and horizontally into rows. The intersection of a
column and row forms a cell. At the top of the worksheet we
have the column headers (the letters A, B, C...) and to the left
the row headers (the numbers 1,2,3 ...). The last column is XFD
(there are 16384columns); the lastrowis numbered 1048576;
thus a single sheet has some 17 billion cells. Your computer
would need to have a very large amount of memory if you
planned to fill every cell.

Cell: A cell is the unit on the worksheet; it may be empty or it

may hold data. Generally cells are outlined by gridlines.
However, it is possible to request Excel not to display gridlines
for a particular worksheet. Note that gridlines are not printed
unless otherwise specified in Page Layout / Sheet Options.

Active cell: If you click on a single cell on the worksheet, it is

displayed with a solid border. We call this the active cell. The
reference (such as Ai) of the active cell is displayed in the name
box. The correct term for the combination of column letter and
row number (as in Ai) is reference, but address is acceptable.
What is not acceptable is name since this has a very special
meaning in Excel. It is possible to configure Excel to use another
8 A Guide to Microsoft Excel 200 7for Scientists and Engineers

reference system in which the top left cell is referred to as R1C1

but we shall not be concerned with that method. As noted
above, the name box displays the reference of the active cell.

Data and Formulas: A cell may contain either data or a

formula. Data and formulas are frequently entered by typing in
the cell. How do we tell Excel we have completed your entry?
There are a number of ways: pressing the Enter [.-J I key;
pressing one of the arrow keys (rn, 8, 8, W) or the tab key
[Tab,!;;]; or clicking the checkmark (v') to the left of the formula
bar. There is another method-clicking on another cell-but
this is a very poor habit to pick up since the result when
entering a formula is generally not what you want! The [.-J Ikey
generally takes you down to the cell one below, but we can
change this with an option setting to move one to the right Data
and formulas can also be placed in cells by copying (or cutting)
them from other cells and then using the Paste command. The
source cells can be in the same worksheet or in another
worksheet, perhaps in another workbook.

Data: The data we entered into the cell can be one of four types.
It could be text (such as the word Experiment), a number
(123.45), a date (lj1j2008), or a Boolean constant (TRUE or
FALSE).

Formulas: A formula always begins with an equal sign (=). It

may contain only constants and cell references (=2*1.2345,
=2*A2). It may also contain one or more functions
(=SUM(A1:A10)). A formula normally displays a value in the
cell; this can be anyone of the data types listed above. So the
cell containing the formula may display a value such as 6.28318,
but when it is the active cell the formula bar may display the
formula =2*PIO. If the formula fails, it may display (we say it
returns) an error value. We start to use formulas in Chapter 2.

Formatting: This is the term used to describe changing how the

value in a cell is displayed. We may format a cell to alter the font
(typeface, size, color) and to add a border or a fill color. By far
the most important aspect of this topic relates to numbers. In
a newly opened worksheet every cell is formatted in what is
called General. If I type 1.23456789 into a cell I will see
1.234567, and the formula =10*PI( ) will display 31.41953
since with the default column width a cell can display up to
seven digits. We may widen the cell to display more digits. If I
type 1234567890, Excel will widen the cell, but when more
 Welcome to Microsoft Excel 9

digits are used, as in 123456789012, Excel displays it in

scientific notation as 1.234567E+ 11 (meaning 1.234567 x10 11).
Had the column been formatted to a narrow width beforehand,
the result would show with fewer digits. We will see later that
we may change the formatofanumber (for example.have =PIO
display as 3.1). What is important to remember is that changing
the format does not alter the actual stored value. We examine
this in a later exercise, but it is good to learn early thatthere are
stored values and displayed values.

Range: A range is a group of contiguous cells (see Figure 1.6).

Note that technically a single cell is also a range: it is a range
consisting of just one cell.

Figure 1.6

Excel 2007 Excel Specifications: At some time you may need to know the
answer to questions such as: What is the biggest number Excel
Specifications can store? The information to answer this type of question is
readily obtained from Help. Clickthe Help button and in the box
type the word specifications (or just specs) and click the Search
It is important to remember command. From the list of found topics select Excel
that Microsoft releases Specifications and Limits. A screen shot showing part of the
updates to all applications on answer is shown in Figure 1.7.
a regular basis. Use the
automatic update feature to Excel 2007 File Format: With Office 2007, Microsoft started
using the Office OpenXML format. This is notthe place to delve
stay current.
into the technical aspects of this format. However, the reader
should be aware that Office 2007 files are actually composed of
a number of several XLM parts that are bundled into a
zip-compressed file. This results in significant storage savings.
10 A Guide to Microsoft Exce/2007for Scientists and Engineers

Figure 1.7
Excel 2007 files have one 0 fthese extensions: XLSX, XLSM, XLTX,
XLTM, and XLAM. Until we begin to use VBA, all or our files will
be saved as XLSX files. The letter M in a file extension denotes
that it contains a macro, while T stands for template and A for
add-in. We find out more as we progress through the book. We
shall not be concerned with the binary format XLSB. The
Microsoft website is the best source of information for the
interested reader; search with the term Excel file formats.

One caveat: Some users have found that if they download an

Office 2007 file (e.g., Book1.xlsx) from a website the download
software mistakenly renames it Book1.ZIP, having detected its
zip-compression attributes. All that is needed is to rename it
back to the original extension before opening it with the Office
2007 application.

Compatibility with Earlier Excel Versions: There were

various Excel file formats before Office 2007. However, Excel
97, 2000, 2002 (part of Office XP) and 2003 all had the same
format and used the extension XLS for simple workbook files.
While Excel 2007 can open files saved in the format of earlier
versions, the converse is not true. When you open an XLS file in
Excel 2007, the title bar will display the phrase Compatibility
Mode and, unless you specify otherwise, the file will be save by
Excel 2007 in the old XLS format
 Welcome to Microsoft Excel 11

To share newly created Excel 2007 files with users of say Excel
2003, you should save it in the XLS format; click the Office
button, use the Save As command, and look for the Excel
97-2003 Worksheet Should the workbook contain a feature not
supported by Excel 97 -2003 (for example, one of the functions
new to Excel 2007), you will be given a warning. Also on the
Office dialog under the Prepare tab there is a Compatibility tool
that checks the workbook for Excel 2007 specific features that
are not compatible with earlier versions. It is also possible for
the other users to install the Microsoft compatibility utility that
automatically converts Office 2007 files to the Office 97-2003
format. Search the Microsoft site using the term office 2007
compatibility.

Problems If you are in a hurry, keep going to Chapter 2. If you like puzzle
solving, try these problems. We will be covering the topics in
subsequent chapters, but you may enjoy the challenge.

1. Type your name in any cell. Make it bold and italic. Find
the commands to remove bold and italic. Hint: IntheHome,
look for an icon resembling an eraser.

2. In cell D1 enter this =TODAY( ) and press the [.-J 1 key. It

should show the current date. Maybe it displays something
like 15/3/2009; can you change itto 15-March-2009?

3. Copy the cell with your name. Paste it in another cell. Copy
the cell with the date. Note the "ant track" running around
the cell you copied. If you double click an empty cell, the
track disappears and you can no longer paste. You have
been using the Windows clipboard. Now click the
Clipboard launcher on the Home tab (far left). This opens
the Office Clipboard, which can hold more than one item.
Experiment with it

4. In A5 type the formula =22/7 and press [.-J I. This gives an

approximate value for rr, Can you discover how to make
this display with eight decimal places?

5. Type some numbers in the cells D1 to D5-later we will

give this instruction as "put numbers in D1:D5." Click
D6-or, in technical terms, make D6 the active cell. Look
for the ~ icon (it is in Home / Editing). Click it to see what
happens.