Excel 2010 Components

When starting Excel, an initial screen like below appears. We will see its fundamental components so that we will know the names of the various elements, and it will be easier to understand the rest of the tutorials. The screen shown below may not exactly match the one you see on your computer since each user can decide which elements they want to be seen at any given time, as we will see later.

File Tab

By clicking on the File tab that is in the upper left part of the screen, you will be able to display a menu from where you will be able to see the actions that you can carry out on the document, including Save, Print or create a New Sheet. You can also access this menu from keyboard access mode as we will see in the Ribbon. It contains two basic types of elements:

• Those that show a panel just to the right with more options, occupying the entire surface of the Excel window. When you place the cursor over the options of this type, you will see that they have a dark green effect. The color will remain when clicked so you know which panel is active.

• Those that open a dialog box. Like Open, or Save As. When you place the cursor over the options, you will see that they have a light green effect. The color only remains while the cursor is over it, because when clicked, the open dialog box itself displays the name of the action in its title bar.

To close the File Tab and return to the document, press ESC or click on another tab.

The Title Bar

This appears in the center and in the top of the window. A title bar indicates the title and sheet titles. It contains the name of the document that is currently being working. When we create a new book, it is assigned the provisional name Book1 until we save it and give it the name we want. On the far right are the buttons to minimize, maximize, and close.

Quick Access Toolbar

The purpose of this toolbar, which is located just above the File tab, is to provide a convenient resting place for Excel’s most frequently used commands. The quick access bar contains the most common Excel operations such as Save, Undo, or Redo. You can add the commands you want to the Quick Access Toolbar on the Ribbon. When you first start the Microsoft excel program. The commands on this toolbar are always visible and at hand. For example, if you use the Print Preview and Quick Print feature every day in Excel and don’t want to open the File menu every time, you can use the Print Preview and Quick Print commands. You can add it to the Quick Access Toolbar. To do this, click the arrow next to the Quick Access Toolbar. Select the Print Preview, and Quick Print commands one by one. The command button you clicked a check icon is added next to it, and the corresponding command appears on the Quick Access Toolbar.

To remove the buttons you have added, right-click on the relevant tool and select the Remove from Quick Access Toolbar command from the menu that opens.

The Ribbon

Ribbon, which is the most important innovation in the menus and toolbars in the Office 2007 version, is back in Office 2010 with some changes. Designed for easy access, Ribbon consists of tabs organized according to specific scenarios and objects. Also, the controls on each tab are organized in groups. Ribbon can contain more content (such as buttons, gallery and dialog boxes) than menus and toolbars. Below is the Word 2010 Ribbon structure.

You will find the same layout in other Office 2010 programs. In Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, the first tab is the Home tab.

Ribbon basically consists of 3 components. And one of the tabs, groups and commands that appear when needed.

• TABS: The ribbon is one of the essential elements of Excel since it contains all the program options organized in tabs. Tabs are used to replace old menus. Only these have command buttons instead of menu options. In Office 2010, basic commands are collected in the first tab, the Home tab. The commands on this tab contain the commands most frequently used by users while performing basic tasks on worksheets. For example, the Paste, Cut, Copy commands are placed first in the Clipboard group on the Home tab. Next follow the font formatting commands in the Font group. You can hide-view all tools by double-clicking the Home tab or any tab name used.

• GROUPS: The groups Organize similar commands; the name of each group is shown below the Ribbon group. Groups on each tab divide the task into subtasks and aggregate the commands you may need to perform a particular type of task. For example, Clipboard group, which is used only for copying operations, consists of Paste, Cut, Copy, Format Painter, buttons. Used for formatting operations such as Font, Font Size, Grow Font, Shrink Font, Bold (Bold), Italic (Italic), Underline (Underline). Tools are located in the Font group.

• COMMAND BUTTONS: Command buttons in each group perform a command or display the command menu. If you click the command button directly, you will have applied that command. If there is a drop-down arrow next to the command button, clicking the arrow will display other options that we can apply. For example, if you click the Paste option arrow, you can paste the copied values for different purposes.

It is possible that in the version you have Excel 2010 installed on your computer, you will see other tabs with more options. It happens because the programs that we have installed on the computer can interact with Excel if they are programmed to do so, adding tools and functionalities.

Suppose you have the professional version of Acrobat installed, to create PDF documents. It is very likely that in your Excel program, a tab called Acrobat will appear that includes useful tools such as creating a PDF from the spreadsheet or exporting as PDF and sending by e-mail.

This integration allows greater comfort when working, but if we want to hide or disable any of these tabs, you can do so from the File>Options>Customize Ribbon menu.

The Formula Bar

It shows us the content of the active cell, that is, the box where we are located. When we go to modify the content of the cell, this bar will vary slightly.

The Label Bar

It allows us to move through the different sheets of the workbook.

The Status Bar

The Status Bar displays information about your current status. This shows the sheet details as well as the location of the insertion point. This bar will show the total number of pages and words in the text, as well as the language. By right-clicking anywhere on the status bar and selecting or deselecting options from the given list, you can customize it.

It indicates the status of the open document, and it has tools to zoom in on the worksheet, moving the marker or pressing the + and – buttons. You can use the zoom control to get a closer look at your text. The zoom control is a lever that allows you to zoom in or out by sliding it left or right. There are also three buttons to quickly switch views (how the book is displayed).

You can switch between Excel’s different sheet views using the group of three buttons to the left of the Zoom key, near the bottom of the screen.

• Normal Layout view: This shows the page in its original format.

• Page Layout view: This shows pages exactly how they’ll look when printed. This displays the document in full screen mode.

• Page Break view: This gives you a sneak peek of where the pages will break when printed.

Help

You can use the Help Icon to get excel-related help at any time. This gives a handy overview of various education-related excel topics.

We have several methods to get Help with Excel.

• One method is to use the Ribbon, clicking on the question mark:

• Another method is to use the F1 key on the keyboard. The help window will appear from which we will have to search for the necessary help.

Row Bar

Rows are numbered from 1 onwards, and the number of rows increases as you enter info. The maximum number of rows is 1,048,576.

Column Bar

Columns are numbered from A onwards, and the number of columns increases as you enter info. After Z, the series of AA, AB, and so on will begin. The maximum number of columns is 16,384.

Sheet Area

This is the place where you enter info. The insertion point is the flashing vertical bar that represents the place where text will appear when you type.

Dialog Box Launcher

On the Ribbon, this appears as a small arrow in the lower-right corner of several groups. This button opens a dialog box or task pane with more choices about the group when you click it.