Getting Started with Excel

 

When you open Excel, you will see this screen that will allow you to either open a new workbook or a previously saved workbook.

1. Open Blank Workbook – Clicking here will allow you to open a new blank workbook in Excel.
2. Recent Workbooks – This is a quick access area that will show you the last few Excel workbooks you’ve had open recently and allow you to reopen them.
3. Open Other Workbooks – Clicking this will allow you to open other Excel workbooks not appearing in the recent list.

When you open a new blank workbook in Excel, This is what you’ll see. These are the main areas of an Excel workbook.

1. Quick Access Toolbar – This area is an “easy access” place that will allow you to perform frequently used actions such as save a workbook, undo the last command, redo the last undone command, check spelling etc… The items in this area can be customized to your preferences.
2. Ribbon Tabs – This is the tab organisation of all the commands in Excel’s ribbon structure. Commands of a similar nature are grouped together in tabs.
3. Ribbon – Ribbons contain all of Excel commands. The different ribbons are organised in tabs with similar commands grouped together. This is the main way accessing and performing a command in Excel such as copy/paste, formatting a cell, accessing the formula library, sorting data etc…
4. Name Box – This area contains the cell address or range name of the currently selected cell or range in a worksheet. Cells in a worksheet have a unique address given by the column letter and row number of the cell (example B7 refers to the cell in column B and row 7). Ranges in a worksheet have a unique address given by the address of the upper left most cell in the range and the address of the lower right most cell in the range joined by a colon (example A1:C5).
5. Formula Bar – This is where formulas you enter in a worksheet will appear. Formulas can be entered or edited here as well the “insert function” dialog box can be accesses here.
6. Worksheet Area – This is the area where all of your text, numbers and formulas live.
7. Status Bar – This area will show information such as if Excel is busy calculating and what percentage of calculations have completed. The status bar also contains a section for “at a glance” statistics like the sum, count, minimum, maximum and average of the currently selected range.