Going behind the scenes to Excel’s Backstage view

At the top of the Excel 2016 program window, immediately below the Excel program button and the Save button on the Quick Access toolbar, you find the File menu button (the green one with “File” in white letters to the immediate left of the Home tab).

When you click the File menu button, the Excel Backstage view appears. The screen in this view contains a menu of file-related options running down a column on the left side and, depending upon which option is selected, some panels containing both at-a-glance information and further command options.

At first glance, the File menu button may appear to you like a Ribbon tab — especially in light of its rectangular shape and location immediately left of the Ribbon’s initial Home tab. Keep in mind, however, that this important file control is technically a command button that, when clicked, leads directly to a totally new, nonworksheet screen with the Backstage view. This screen has its own menu options but contains no Ribbon command buttons whatsoever.

After you click the File menu button to switch to the Backstage view, you can then select the Back button (with the left-pointing arrow) that appears above the Info menu item to return to the normal worksheet view or you can simply press the Esc key.

Getting the lowdown on the Info screen

When you choose File  ⇒  Info at the top of File menu in the Backstage view, an Info screen similar to the one shown in Figure 1-3 appears.

On the left side of this Info screen, you find the following four command buttons:

• Protect Workbook to encrypt the Excel workbook file with a password, protect its contents, or verify the contents of the file with a digital signature (see Book IV, Chapters 1 and 3 for more on protecting and signing your workbooks)
• Inspect Workbook to inspect the document for hidden metadata (data about the file) and check the file’s accessibility for folks with disabilities and compatibility with earlier versions of Excel (see Book IV, Chapter 3 for details on using this feature)
• Manage Workbook to recover or delete draft versions saved with Excel’s AutoRecover feature (see Book II, Chapter 1 for more on using AutoRecover)
• Browser View Options to control what parts of the Excel workbook can be viewed and edited by users who view it online on the Web

On the right side of the Info screen, you see a list of various and sundry bits of information about the file:

• Properties lists the Size of the file as well as any Title, Tags, and Categories (to help identify the file when doing a search for the workbook) assigned to it. To edit or add to the Title, Tags, or Categories properties, click the appropriate text box and begin typing. To add or change additional file properties, including the Company, Comments, and Status properties, click the Properties drop-down button and then select Show Document Panel or Advanced Properties from its drop-down menu. Select Show Document Panel to open the Document panel in the regular worksheet window where you can edit properties such as Author, Title, Subject, and Keywords and to add comments. Select the Advanced Properties option to open the workbook’s Properties dialog box (with its General, Summary, Statistics, Contents, and Custom tabs) to change and review a ton of file properties.
• Related Dates lists the date the file was Last Modified, Created, and Printed.
• Related People lists the name of the workbook’s author as well as the name of the person who last modified the file. To add an author to the workbook file, click the Add an Author link that appears beneath the name of the current author. If the workbook file is new and you’ve never saved it on disk, the words “Not Saved Yet” appear after Last Modified By.
• The Open File Location check box appears under the Related Documents heading. Select it to open the folder containing the current workbook file, where you can find associated workbook files to work with.
• The Show All Properties link, when clicked, expands the list of Properties to include text fields for Comments, Template, Status, Categories, Subject, Hyperlink Base, and Company that you can edit.

Ripping through the Ribbon

The Ribbon (shown in Figure 1-4) groups related commands together with the goal of showing you all the most commonly used options needed to perform a particular Excel task.

The Ribbon is made up of the following components:

• Tabs: Excel’s main tasks are brought together and display all the commands commonly needed to perform that core task.
• Groups: Related command buttons can be organized into subtasks normally performed as part of the tab’s larger core task.
• Command buttons: Within each group you find command buttons that you can select to perform a particular action or to open a gallery. Note that many command buttons on certain tabs of the Excel Ribbon are organized into mini-toolbars with related settings.
• Dialog Box launcher: This button is located in the lower-right corner of certain groups and opens a dialog box containing a bunch of additional options you can select.

To get more of the Worksheet area displayed in the program window, you can minimize the Ribbon so that only its tabs are displayed. (In fact, this Tabs display option is the default setting for Excel 2016 running on a touchscreen device, such as the Microsoft Surface tablet.)

You can minimize the Ribbon by doing any of the following:

• Click the Collapse the Ribbon button (the button with the caret symbol in the lower-right corner of the Excel Ribbon).
• Double-click a Ribbon tab.
• Press Ctrl+F1.
• Click the Shows Tabs item on the Ribbon Display Options button’s drop-down menu.

To redisplay the entire Ribbon and keep all the command buttons on the selected tab displayed in the program window, click the tab and then select the Pin the Ribbon button (the one with the push-pin icon that replaces the Unpin the Ribbon button). You can also do this by double-clicking one of the tabs or pressing Ctrl+F1 a second time, or even by selecting the Show Tabs and Commands item on the drop-down menu that appears when you click or tap the Ribbon Display Options button.

When you work in Excel with the Ribbon minimized, the Ribbon expands each time you select one of its tabs to show its command buttons, but that tab stays open only until you select one of its command buttons. The moment you select a command button, Excel immediately minimizes the Ribbon again so that only the tabs display.

Note, however, that when Excel expands a tab on the collapsed Ribbon, the Ribbon tab overlaps the top of the worksheet, obscuring the header with the column letters as well as the first couple of rows of the worksheet itself. This setup can make it a little harder to work when the Ribbon commands you’re selecting pertain to data in these first rows of the worksheet. For example, if you’re centering a title entered in cell A1 across several columns to the right with the Merge & Center command button on the Home tab, you can’t see the result of selecting the button until you once again minimize the Ribbon by selecting a visible cell in the worksheet. If you then decide you don’t like the results or want to further refine the title’s formatting, you need to redisplay the Home tab of the Ribbon once again, which obscures the cells in the top two rows all over again! (The workaround for this is to do most of your formatting with the commands on the mini-bar that appears when you right-click a cell selection so that you don’t have to open the minimized Ribbon at all. See the section on formatting cells with the mini-bar in Book II, Chapter 2 for details.)

Selecting with mouse and keyboard

Because Excel 2016 runs on many different types of devices, the most efficient means of selecting Ribbon commands depends not only on the device on which you’re running the program, but on the way that device is equipped as well.

For example, when I use Excel 2016 on my Microsoft 3 Surface tablet with its touch cover (equipped with both keyboard and touchpad) connected, I select commands from the Excel Ribbon more or less the same way I do when running Excel on my Windows desktop computer equipped with a standalone physical keyboard and mouse or on my Windows 10 laptop computer with its built-in physical keyboard and track pad.

However, when I run Excel 2016 on my Surface 3 tablet when the touch cover is not connected, I’m limited to selecting Ribbon commands directly on the touchscreen with my finger or stylus.

The most direct method for selecting Ribbon commands equipped with a physical keyboard and mouse is to click the tab that contains the command button you want and then click that button in its group. For example, to insert an online image into your spreadsheet, you click the Insert tab and then click the Illustrations button followed by the Online Pictures button to open the Insert Pictures dialog box.

The easiest method for selecting commands on the Ribbon — if you know your keyboard at all well — is to press the keyboard’s Alt key and then type the letter of the hot key that appears on the tab you want to select. Excel then displays all the command button hot keys next to their buttons, along with the hot keys for the Dialog Box launchers in any group on that tab. (See Figure 1-5.) To select a command button or Dialog Box launcher, simply type its hot key letter.

If you know the old Excel shortcut keys from versions prior to Excel 2007, you can still use them. For example, instead of going through the rigmarole of pressing Alt+HCC to copy a cell selection to the Windows Clipboard and then Alt+HVP to paste it elsewhere in the sheet, you can still press Ctrl+C to copy the selection and then press Ctrl+V when you’re ready to paste it.

Adjusting to the Quick Access toolbar

When you first begin using Excel 2016, the Quick Access toolbar contains only the following three or four buttons:

• Save: Saves any changes made to the current workbook using the same filename, file format, and location.
• Undo: Undoes the last editing, formatting, or layout change you made.
• Redo: Reapplies the previous editing, formatting, or layout change that you just removed with the Undo button.
• Touch/Mouse Mode (automatically added only to Excel running on touchscreen tablets and computers): Switches between the default mouse mode and touch mode, which puts more space between tabs and their command buttons to facilitate selection with a finger or stylus.

The Quick Access toolbar is very customizable because you can easily add any Ribbon command to it. Moreover, you’re not restricted to adding buttons for just the commands on the Ribbon; you can add any Excel command you want to the toolbar, even the obscure ones that don’t rate an appearance on any of its tabs. (See Book I, Chapter 2 for details on customizing the Quick Access toolbar.)

By default, the Quick Access toolbar appears right above the File Menu button and Ribbon tabs. To display the toolbar beneath the Ribbon above the Formula bar, click the Customize Quick Access Toolbar button (the drop-down button to the direct right of the toolbar with a horizontal bar above a down-pointing triangle) and then select Show Below the Ribbon from its drop-down menu. Doing this helps you avoid crowding out the name of the current workbook that appears to the toolbar’s right.

Fooling around with the Formula bar

The Formula bar displays the cell address and the contents of the current cell. The address of this cell is determined by its column letter(s) followed immediately by the row number, as in cell A1, the very first cell of each worksheet at the intersection of column A and row 1, or cell XFD1048576, the very last of each Excel 2016 worksheet at the intersection of column XFD and row 1048576. The contents of the current cell are determined by the type of entry you make there: text or numbers, if you just enter a heading or particular value, and the nuts and bolts of a formula, if you enter a calculation there.

The Formula bar is divided into three sections:

• Name box: The leftmost section displays the address of the current cell address.
• Formula bar buttons: The second, middle section appears as a rather nondescript button displaying only an indented circle on the left (used to narrow or widen the Name box) with the Insert Function button (labeled fx) on the right until you start making or editing a cell entry. At that time, its Cancel (an X) and its Enter (a check mark) buttons appear in between them.
• Cell contents: The third white area to the immediate right of the Function Wizard button takes up the rest of the bar and expands as necessary to display really, really long cell entries that won’t fit in the normal area. This area contains a Formula Bar button on the far right that enables you to expand its display to show really long formulas that span more than a single row and then to contract the Cell contents area back to its normal single row.

The Cell contents section of the Formula bar is really important because it always shows you the contents of the cell even when the worksheet does not. (When you’re dealing with a formula, Excel displays only the calculated result in the cell in the worksheet and not the formula by which that result is derived.) You can edit the contents of the cell in this area at any time. By the same token, when the Cell contents area is blank, you know that the cell is empty as well.

What’s up with the Worksheet area?

The Worksheet area is where most of the Excel spreadsheet action takes place because it displays the cells in different sections of the current worksheet. Also, inside the cells is where you do all of your spreadsheet data entry and formatting, not to mention the majority of your editing.

Keep in mind that for you to be able to enter or edit data in a cell, that cell must be current. Excel indicates that a cell is current in three ways:

• The cell cursor or pointer — the dark green border surrounding the cell’s entire perimeter — appears in the cell.
• The address of the cell appears in the Name box of the Formula bar.
• The current cell’s column letter(s) and row number are shaded (in an orange color on most monitors) in the column headings and row headings that appear at the top and left of the Worksheet area, respectively.

Taking a tour of the status bar

The status bar is the last component at the very bottom of the Excel program window. (See Figure 1-6.) The status bar contains the following areas:

• Mode: This button indicates the current state of the Excel program (READY, ENTER, EDIT, and so on).
• AutoCalculate: This indicator displays the AVERAGE, COUNT, and SUM of all the numerical entries in the current cell selection.
• Layout: This selector enables you to select between three layouts for the Worksheet area: Normal, the default view that shows only the worksheet cells with the column and row headings; Page Layout view, which adds rulers and page margins and shows page breaks for the worksheet; and Page Break Preview, which enables you to adjust the paging of a report.
• Zoom: The Zoom slider enables you to zoom in and out on the cells in the Worksheet area by dragging the slider to the right or left, respectively.

When you begin recording your first macro in Excel 2016 (see Book VIII, Chapter 1 for details), a Stop Recording button (with a square icon) appears on the status bar to the immediate right of the Mode indicator. When you finish recording this macro, the Stop Recording button on the status bar immediately changes into a Record Macro button (using an icon with a dot on a tiny worksheet) that you can thereafter use to record any or all your future macros.

Show-and-tell help with the Tell Me feature

Excel 2016’s new Tell Me help feature must be from Missouri because it doesn’t just tell you what to do; it actually shows you by performing the task for you. This handy little feature is available from the Tell Me What You Want to Do text box located to the immediate right of the last command tab above the Excel ribbon. As you enter a help topic into this text box, Excel displays a list of related Excel commands in a drop-down list.

When you then select one of the items displayed on this list, Excel either selects the associated Ribbon command (no matter which Ribbon tab is currently selected) and waits for you to make a selection from the command’s submenu or, in some case, just goes ahead and completes the associated command sequence for you.

For example, if you type print into the Tell Me What You Want to Do text box, Excel displays a list with the following items:

• Quick Print
• Preview and Print
• Print Preview and Print
• Print Guidelines
• Print Area
• See Help for “Print”

If you select Quick Print at the top of the list, Excel immediately sends the current worksheet to the printer. If, however, you select Preview and Print next on the list, a submenu with Print Preview and Print, Quick Print, and Print Preview Full Screen appears. If you select the Print Preview and Print item, Excel displays a preview of the printout on the Print Screen in the Backstage view that you can print. If you select the Quick Print item, the program sends the worksheet directly to the printer. But if you select the Print Preview Full Screen item, Excel replaces the Worksheet view with a full screen print preview page from which you can print the worksheet. (See Chapter 5 for complete details on previewing and printing your worksheets.)

On the other hand, if you type underline in the Tell Me What You Want to Do text box, Excel displays two items: Underline and See Help for “Underline.” If you then select the Underline item, Excel goes ahead and assigns the underlining font attribute to whatever is in the cell that’s current in the worksheet.

If you would rather learn how to complete a task in Excel rather than have the program do it for you, select the See Help for “xyz” item at the end of the list below the Tell Me What You Want to Do text box. This opens an Excel Help window with loads of information about using the commands to accomplish that task (as described in the very next section).

Using the Excel online help

Excel 2016 offers extensive online help that you can make use of anytime while using the program. To display the Excel Help window, you press function key F1. When you do, an Excel 2016 Help window similar to the one shown in Figure 1-7 appears.

On a device without any access to the function keys, you can display the online Excel 2016 Help window by typing help into the Tell Me What You Want to Do text box and then tapping the Get Help on “help” option in the drop-down list.

This window contains a search text box with a Search button to the right (with the spyglass icon) below a group of command buttons (Back, Next, Home, Print, and Increase Font). To display a list of related help topics in the Help window, type a keyword or name of a category (such as printing, formulas, and so on) and then click the Search button or press Enter. The Excel 2016 Help window then displays a list of help topics for that category. To display detailed information about a particular help topic in this list, click its link.

To print the contents of the help topic that you select, click the Print button (the one with the Printer icon) at the top of the Excel Help window. To return to the opening Excel Help screen, click the Home button. To return to the previous Help screen after reviewing several links in a row, click the Back button (the one with arrow pointing left).

Starting Excel from the Windows 10 Start menu

Windows 10 brings back the good old Start menu that many of you remember from much earlier Windows versions. The Windows 10 Start menu combines the straight up menu from earlier days with the tile icons so prominent in Windows 8. To open this menu to launch Excel 2016, click the Windows icon on the taskbar or press the Windows key on your keyboard.

Then, click the All Apps button under the list of the Most Used applications in the menu and scroll down to Microsoft Office 2016 under the E’s in the list. Select the Expand button (with the caret pointing downward) to display your Office applications where you click Excel 2016, as shown in Figure 1-8.

You can pin an Excel 2016 button to the Windows 10 Start menu and/or its taskbar so that you can launch Excel simply by selecting this button. To pin a button, right-click the Excel 2016 menu item in the Start menu and then select the Pin to Start and/or Pin to Taskbar items in the displayed context menu.

Starting Excel from the Windows 10 Ask Me Anything text box

Instead of opening the Windows 10 Start menu and locating the Excel 2016 item there, you can launch the program by selecting this item from the Ask Me Anything text box. Simply type excel into this text box that appears to the immediate right of the Windows button on the taskbar and click Excel 2016 at the top of its result list.

Telling Cortana to Start Excel 2016 for you

If you want Cortana, the voice-activated online Windows 10 assistant, to launch Excel 2016 for you, click the microphone icon in the Ask Me Anything text box and then when she displays the listening prompt, say “Cortana, start Microsoft Excel 2016.”

Starting Excel from the Windows 8 Start screen

When starting Excel 2016 from the Windows 8 Start screen, you simply select the Excel 2016 program tile either by clicking it if you have a mouse available or tapping it with your finger or stylus if you’re running Windows 8 on a touchscreen device.

If you can’t locate the Excel 2016 tile among those displayed on the Start screen, use the Search feature to find the application and pin it to the Windows 8 Start screen:

1. From the Start screen, begin typing exc on your physical or Touch keyboard.

   Windows 8 displays Excel 2016 in the list of programs under Apps on the left side of the screen.

2. Right-click the Excel 2016 button in the Apps list on the left side of the screen.

   On a touchscreen device, the equivalent to the right-click of the mouse is to tap and hold the Excel 2016 menu item until a circle appears around your finger or stylus. Then, when you remove your finger or stylus from the screen, the shortcut menu appears.

3. Select the Pin to Start option from the menu bar that appears at the bottom of the screen.

After pinning an Excel 2016 tile to the Windows 8 Start screen, you can move it by dragging and dropping it in your desired block.

Starting Excel from the Windows 7 Start menu

When starting Excel 2016 from the Windows 7 Start menu, you follow these simple steps:

1. Click the Start button on the Windows taskbar to open the Windows Start menu.

   To select the Start button on a device equipped with a mouse, you click the button. To select the Start button on a touchscreen device with no mouse or touchpad, you tap the button on the touchscreen.

2. Choose All Programs from the Start menu, choose Microsoft Office 2016, and then choose Excel 2016.

You can use the Search Programs and Files search box on the Windows 7 Start menu to locate Excel on your computer and launch the program in no time at all:

1. Click the Start button on the Windows 7 taskbar to open the Windows Start menu.

2. Select the Start menu’s search text box and type the letters exc to have Windows locate Microsoft Office Excel 2016 on your computer.

   If you’re using a device without a physical keyboard, double-tap the right edge of the Touch keyboard that appears on the left edge of the Windows Start menu and screen to make the entire keyboard appear and then tap out the letters exc.

3. Select the Microsoft Excel 2016 option that now appears in the left Programs column on the Start menu.

When it’s quitting time

When you’re ready to call it a day and quit Excel, you have several choices for shutting down the program:

• Press Alt+FX or Alt+F4 on your physical or Touch keyboard.
• Select the Close button (the one with the x) in the upper-right corner of the Excel program window.
• Click the Excel program button (the green one with the x on a partially opened book to the immediate left of the Save button on the Quick Access toolbar) followed by the Close option on its drop-down menu.

If you try to exit Excel after working on a workbook and you haven’t saved your latest changes, the program beeps at you and displays an alert box querying whether you want to save your changes. To save your changes before exiting, click the Yes command button. (For detailed information on saving documents, see Book I, Chapter 2.) If you’ve just been playing around in the worksheet and don’t want to save your changes, you can abandon the document by clicking the No button.