The Excel Ribbon is the most important aspect of the Excel interface and contains the great majority of the program’s commands. The Ribbon is arranged into a series of Tabs, each of which contains a series of related commands. Tabs are accessed simply by simply clicking on the name of each Tab. Within each Tab, commands are organised in groups: the name of each group is displayed at the bottom of the group.
The Home Tab features the most frequently used commands. Here you’ll find those commands that are used frequently; commands related to the clipboard such as Cut Copy and Paste; commands for changing the format of the data within your cells; changing the font; setting the alignment and the appearance of numbers; commands for modifying cells such as adding rows and columns; and finally commands for sorting and editing information.
The Insert Tab, as the name suggests, is used to add or insert elements into your worksheets. Some of these elements are part and parcel of Excel such as charts; other elements need to be inserted from outside the program like images, for example, adding a company logo to an Excel form.
The Page Layout Tab has commands for controlling the appearance of your worksheets as a whole. Here you’ll find margins, orientation, paper size and the area of the worksheet to be printed. You will normally use the page layout Tab before you print your worksheets.
The Formulas Tab contains controls for dealing with the most powerful aspect of Excel: formulas and functions. Here you can insert functions, search for errors in formulas and control the way in which Excel works with formulas and carries out calculations.
In the Data Tab you will find commands for importing information into Excel from sources such as databases; sorting information and also filtering (in other words returning data which matches certain criteria).
Here you’ll also find advanced tools for consolidation, validating data and performing “What if?” analysis. Also, in the outline section, there are commands for assigning different levels to the different columns and rows of the worksheet. Excel’s powerful outlining commands make large worksheet easier to manage and to navigate.
The principal theme of the Review Tab is checking and protection. It is here that you will find Excel’s spell-checker, commands enabling users to add comments to a worksheet and options for protecting both worksheets and workbooks.
The View Tab contains commands relating to the way in which your worksheets and workbooks are viewed. Here you’ll find commands for zooming in and out on your work and for viewing multiple workbooks and worksheets simultaneously.
The Developer Tab is all about automation. It is here that you’ll find commands for creating macros. Macros are Visual Basic code which can be written to automate just about any aspect of Microsoft Excel.