This is the standard Excel spreadsheet view.

Switches to Page Layout view. See the box on Data Entry.

All the various palettes below are part of the Toolbox—you can’t click this menu item directly.

Hides or shows the Formatting Palette.

Hides or shows the Object Palette.

Hides or shows the Formula Builder.

Hides or shows the Scrapbook.

Hides or shows the Reference Tools.

Hides or shows the Compatibility Report.

Hides or shows the Project Palette.

Hides or shows the Elements Gallery.

Using this command’s submenu, you can hide or show Excel’s toolbars: Standard, Formatting, Border Drawing, Chart, Drawing, External Data, Forms, Formula Auditing, List, Movie, PivotTable, and Reviewing.

Opens the Customize window, where you can select more toolbars or create your own (see Customizing Your Toolbars).

(Page Layout view only.) Displays a ruler along the top of the Excel page.

Hides or shows the formula bar. This is one that you should probably leave on, as you’ll be using the formula bar quite a bit.

Hides or shows the status bar at the bottom of an open workbook.

Lets you edit the headers and footers that appear at the top and bottom of every page.

Shows all comments in the document if they’re hidden, and opens the Reviewing toolbar. If comments are already visible, choosing this hides them.

Opens the Custom Views window, which you can use to add, delete, or show custom views that you’ve saved.

Turns Full Screen mode on and off. In Full Screen mode, your workbook enlarges to take over the entire screen, and Excel hides other elements (such as toolbars and the Formatting Palette).

Opens the Zoom window, where you can choose one of seven zoom levels (25, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150, or 200 percent) for magnifying or shrinking the onscreen representation of your spreadsheet, or you can zoom in or out to fit a selection. You can also enter a custom zoom level (from 10 to 400 percent).

If you have a chart embedded in its own chart sheet, this command ties the size of the chart to the size of the window in which it’s embedded. If this command isn’t checked, resizing the window has no effect on the size of the chart.

If you have a chart selected, this appears at the bottom of the View menu. It makes Excel open the existing chart in a new chart window.