Your computer probably came with Excel 2007 preinstalled, but if you do have to install it yourself, Setup makes installation so simple that you won’t need my help anyway. So, unlike many computer books, this one doesn’t start with installation instructions and a list of system requirements.
Next, you don’t have to read the sections of this book in any particular order. You can jump in, get the information you need, and then close the book and keep it near your computer until the next time you need to know how to get something done. But that doesn’t mean I scattered the information about with wild abandon. I’ve organized the book so that the tasks you want to accomplish are arranged in two levels—you find the general type of task you’re looking for under a main section title such as "Chapter 7," "Chapter 12," "Chapter 15," and so on. Then, in each of those sections, the smaller tasks within the main task are arranged in a loose progression from the simplest to the more complex.
Chapter 1 introduces the book, while Chapter 2 fills you in on the most important new features of Excel 2007. The biggest difference between Excel 2007 and previous versions is that the menu and toolbar system has been replaced by a new user interface. Now, instead of having to look under a series of rocks to find the capability you want, you can find the command you want on the user interface ribbon and complete your task quickly. This section also describes how to format data based on its value, use data tables effectively, create more attractive charts, and save your workbooks in popular file formats.
Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 cover the basics: starting Excel 2007 and shutting it down, sizing and arranging program windows, navigating in a workbook, using the user interface ribbon to have Excel do what you want it to do, and working with multiple Excel documents at the same time. Chapter 3 also introduces galleries, which are collections of preset formats you can apply to worksheets, charts, and other Excel objects, and shows you how to get help from within Excel and on the Web. Chapter 4 contains a lot of useful information about entering text and data, including shortcuts you can use to enter an entire series of numbers or dates by typing values in just one or two cells. You’ll also learn about using the Office Clipboard to manage items you cut and paste, running the spelling checker to ensure you haven’t made any errors in your workbook, and finding and replacing text to update changes in customer addresses or product names.
Chapter 5 is all about managing and viewing worksheets—the "pages" of a workbook. In this section, you’ll find out about selecting, renaming, moving, copying, inserting, and deleting worksheets, rows, columns, and cells. In Chapter 6, you’ll get to know formulas and functions. You use formulas to calculate values, such as finding the sum of the values in a group of cells. Once you’re up to speed on creating basic formulas, you’ll learn how to save time by copying a formula from one cell and pasting it into as many other cells as you like. Finally, you’ll extend your knowledge of formulas by creating powerful statements using the function library in Excel 2007.
Chapter 7 focuses on making your workbooks’ cells look great. Here’s where you’ll learn techniques to make your data more readable, such as by changing font sizes and font colors, adding colors and shading to cells, and color-coding your sheet tabs to make them stand out. Chapter 8 describes similar techniques you can apply to your worksheets, such as moving, inserting, and deleting rows and columns, applying worksheet themes, and coloring sheet tabs to call attention to important information.
Chapter 9 is all about printing your Excel documents, whether that means printing all or just a portion of your results. Your productivity should increase after reading Chapter 10, where you’ll learn how to customize Excel 2007 for the way you work. I’ll show you how to add commands to the Quick Access Toolbar, control which error messages appear, define rules Excel uses to replace oft-misspelled words, create workbooks from built-in templates, and create custom workbook templates you can use to create new workbooks based on those formats.
Chapter 11 is about sorting and filtering your data, techniques you can use to limit the data displayed in a worksheet and determine the order in which it is presented. Do you need to see all of the sales for a specific product but don’t want to bother with the rest of the data for the moment? No problem.
A picture is worth ten thousand words (according to Confucius; the modern version of the saying shorts you by nine thousand words), and I’ll show you how to use the new Excel 2007 charting engine to create and use charts to summarize your data visually in Chapter 12. In Chapter 13, you’ll learn how to enhance your worksheets by adding graphics and pictures. You’ll be surprised to learn just how easy it is to insert clip art, add a special text effect, or resize a photo you added to a worksheet.
Chapter 14 and Chapter 15 are all about sharing the data in your Excel worksheets—whether it’s with your colleagues, on the Internet, or with other programs. Chapter 14 shows you how to make Excel 2007 interact with other 2007 Microsoft Office system programs, such as by embedding documents from other programs into your Excel workbooks, exchanging data between Excel and Word, or importing a text file into an Excel worksheet. In Chapter 15, you’ll learn how to use Excel in a group environment, to add comments to your worksheets, and to accept or reject the comments made by others. You’ll also learn how to publish a worksheet to the Web as well as how to pull information from the Internet directly into your worksheets. This section also introduces the Extensible Markup Language (XML), a handy technology that enables you to exchange data among spreadsheet applications.