Excel 2007: A Brief Introduction
Microsoft Excel 2007 uses the new Microsoft Office interface. Menus and toolbars have been removed and
are replaced with a Ribbon with Tabs. If you are new to this interface you will find it helpful to read the
introductory sheet in this series: Office 2007: A Brief Introduction. This also explains how to open, save and
print documents.
Overleaf you’ll find a list of common
tasks in Excel and the location of the
command on the new Ribbon interface.
NOTE
Finding your way around
Most of the old Excel toolbar buttons are on the Home
tab of the ribbon. Microsoft has tried to gather
together the things you’ll use most often onto this tab.
Some useful new features
Live Preview, the Mini Toolbar and the Zoom Slider are available in Excel (see Word 2007: A Brief Introduction).
Quick and Easy Formatting: Conditional formatting, table formatting and cell styles are now much easier to
apply and much more powerful. Look in the Home tab > Styles group.
Working with Functions and Formulas is now easier.
All functions and formula related commands are on the Formulas tab.
When you begin typing the name of a function an auto-complete menu appears
for you to choose from.
The Formula Bar can be expanded by using the arrows at the far right of the bar.
Instant Calculations: If you select a range of cells containing numbers,
Excel shows their average, count and sum on the status bar at the
bottom of the window. If you right-click on the status bar you can add additional calculations.
Page Layout View allows you to work on your spreadsheet while showing you how it will appear on the
printed page. To switch to Page Layout View: View tab > Workbook Views group.
Chart Drawing: There is no Chart Wizard for drawing charts. Choose the
chart type you want to draw from Insert tab > Charts Group. Selecting a
chart shows the Chart Tools contextual tabs with improved features.
Adobe Acrobat PDF files: Excel can now create Adobe Acrobat PDF files. When you want to turn an Excel
spreadsheet into a PDF file:
Go to the Office Button, point at Save As and wait for the sub-menu to appear.
Choose PDF or XPS
Excel 2007 and older versions of Excel
When you open a workbook that was created in an older version of Excel it opens in Compatibility Mode.
You can work with the workbook and save it as normal. However when saving, you will often be given a
warning that there will be compatibility problems. Some warnings such as “Minor loss of fidelity” (often
reported if you have applied colour to a cell) you may choose to ignore. Others, such as “Significant loss of
Functionality” indicate that you should resave the workbook in the new Excel 2007 format.
For more information see the introductory sheet in the series: Office 2007: A Brief Introduction.
Help in Faculties of Arts and Social Sciences: http://www.le.ac.uk/ss/office2007/
April 2008 | Page 1
Excel 2007: A Brief Introduction
How do I find…?
New/Open/Save/Print/Exit
Office Button
Switch between open Excel workbooks
View tab > Window group > Switch Windows or
Use the buttons on the Taskbar at the bottom of the
screen.
Undo/Redo
Quick Access Toolbar
Cut/Copy/Paste/Format Painter
Home tab > Clipboard group
Find and Replace
Home tab > Editing group
Character formatting options
Home tab > Font group
Cell and number formatting options
Home tab > Alignment group or Styles group
Home tab > Number group
Conditional Formatting
Home tab > Styles group
Wrap text within a cell
Home tab > Alignment group > Wrap Text
Merge cells
Home tab > Alignment group > Merge and Center
Insert and delete rows and columns
Home tab > Cells group
Column and Row formatting width and height
Home tab > Cells group > Format command
Visibility and width of rows and columns
Home tab > Cells group > Format command
Freeze Panes
View tab > Window group
Sort
Data tab > Sort & Filter group or
Home tab > Editing group > Sort & Filter command
Chart drawing tools
Insert tab > Charts group
When editing a chart three new contextual tabs
appear on the Ribbon: Chart Design, Chart Layout
and Chart Format. These can be used to change the
appearance and structure of the chart.
Insert Functions/Equations
Formulas tab > Function Library group
Page Setup (margins, orientation, size, print area)
Page Layout tab > Page Setup group
Add Header and Footer to the printed page
Page Layout tab > Page Setup group > Print Titles
command
Page Break
Page Layout tab > Page Setup group > Breaks
Scale to fit pages when printing
Page Layout tab > Scale to Fit group
Creating PDF documents
Office Button > Save As > PDF or XPS
Changing preferences
Office Button > Excel Options
button
Help in Faculties of Arts and Social Sciences: http://www.le.ac.uk/ss/office2007/
April 2008 | Page 2