Microsoft® Excel 2007: take a tour of the interface and learn basic skills

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program that helps organize, summarize, and calculate data. In business, Excel is used for accounting, analysis, and project management; whereas many people use Excel in their personal lives to budget, make comparisons, and track spending. Before we get started, let's get familiar with some worksheet terminology.

A cell is a box at the intersection of a row and column. A row runs across, or horizontally, and a column is vertical.

The active cell is the one that's currently selected. You'll notice that it appears with a thick black outline and the corresponding row and column headers are highlighted.

The display area above the gridlines and below the Ribbon is where the active cell's name appears. By default, it's named according to its column letter and row number.

The letters at the top of the gridlines represent column headings. You can select a column by clicking the letter at the heading.

Row headings are numbered. Just click a number to select that row.

If you want to cancel the selection of the entire row or column, you can click anywhere outside of the selection.

Now that we've covered basic terminology, let's review the Excel 2007 interface.

The Ribbon is the multi-tabbed toolbar where you can find the buttons and other controls for issuing commands.

A tab is an individual page of the Ribbon. The Home tab is at the far left and is currently displayed. Here you can easily find the most frequently used editing, formatting, and navigations commands. Other tabs include Insert, Page Layout, and Formulas.

Above the tabs is the Quick Access Toolbar, which contains shortcuts to common commands, regardless of which tab is displayed on the Ribbon.

If you want to add a command button to the Quick Access Toolbar, right-click the button of your choice and select Add to Quick Access Toolbar from the menu that appears.

The button appears on the Quick Access Toolbar.

The Microsoft Office button at the top left opens the Office menu, which contains commands for saving, opening and printing files. You can select a command or point to an arrow for a submenu.

Select the command or option on the submenu. Or, you can close it without selecting anything by clicking outside the menu or pressing Escape on your keyboard.

Now let's look at what happens when you start entering data in Excel. When you type numbers or text into a cell.

What you type will appear in the formula bar, just below the Ribbon.

So when you type a formula or function, what you type appears in both the cell itself and the formula bar.

When the entry is complete, the cell displays the formula result and the formula bar continues to display the original formula entered.

To the left of the formula bar is the Insert Function button. Click here and a dialog box opens that will help you select and construct a function.

After the Insert Function dialog box opens, you can select the function of your choice from the drop down menu or search for it. A brief description of the selected function appears below the menu.

At the bottom right, the Cancel button closes the dialog box without saving your selection.

If you need help with Excel, click the Help button at the top right. This opens Excel's full Help system, where you can find any topic you need assistance with.

After you click the Help button, the Excel Help window opens. Just select any topic to learn more.

You can close the Help window by clicking its close button.

To change the magnification at which the worksheet is viewed, use the Zoom controls at the bottom right of the window.

If you want to zoom a small amount, click the Zoom In or Zoom Out buttons. If you click the Zoom In button once, the worksheet enlarges just a little bit.

To zoom a greater amount, drag the slider to the left to zoom out and to the right to zoom in.

You can return to 100% by returning the slider to the middle.

At the bottom left, you can see each worksheet is represented by a tab. The worksheets make up the Excel workbook or document.

Select a tab to switch to that sheet.

To add a new sheet to the workbook, click the Insert Worksheet button at the right of the current sheets.

In this demonstration, you've learned about the interface, terminology, and a few essential skills. Now you are better prepared to use Microsoft Excel 2007 to create your own spreadsheets.