12 Part 1: Getting to Know Excel 2007
Tipping off your keyboard
Excel provides a feature called KeyTips that allow you to access every command
on the Ribbon using the keyboard, without having to memorize keystroke com-
binations! So, what are KeyTips? KeyTips are little alphanumerical indicators
containing a single letter, a combination of two letters, or a number, indicating
what to type to activate the command under them, as shown in Figure 1-5.
Figure 1-5
Follow these steps to access a command in a Ribbon tab using a KeyTip:
1. Press the Alt key. The KeyTips appear over the Ribbon tabs (Ignore the
KeyTips that appear in the other areas of the interface for this exercise.)
2. Press the key that represents the KeyTip for the Ribbon tab you want to
access. For example, press N to select the Insert tab. Note that you do not
have to hold down the Alt key. If you need to select a different tab after
you select the KeyTip for a tab, press the Esc key.
3. Press the key or key combination that represents the KeyTip for the com-
mand you want to use.
If the command you select is a drop-down gallery or drop-down grid, you can
use an arrow key or the Tab key to highlight your choice and then press the
Enter key to select your choice.
Remember: KeyTips are associated with in-Ribbon galleries, so you have to press
the key that represents the KeyTip for the gallery before you can choose an
option in the gallery.
Remember: If the command you want to use requires a number key, you must use
the number keys on the main keyboard. The KeyTip feature does not work with
the numeric keypad.
Hiding the Ribbon commands
If you find that the Ribbon commands take up too much of your screen area, you
can hide them using any of the following methods:
Press Ctrl+F1
Double-click any Ribbon tab
Introducing the Ribbon — Introducing the Quick Access Toolbar 13
Right-click in the Ribbon area and choose Minimize the Ribbon from the
contextual menu
Click the arrow to the right of the Quick Access toolbar and choose
Minimize the Ribbon from the menu
If you click a tab after you hide the Ribbon commands, Excel displays the tab
commands temporarily. The command display is hidden again after you select a
command in the tab or click away from the Ribbon area. Similarly, you can use
KeyTips to select a command when the command display is hidden.
To redisplay the commands permanently after you hide them, use the same
methods described for hiding the commands.
Remember: Excel maintains the hidden condition of the Ribbon commands if you
exit and subsequently re-launch Excel.
Introducing the Quick Access Toolbar
The Quick Access toolbar is an area of the new user interface that provides
quick access to commands. The toolbar is designed to reduce the amount of
navigation you have to do in the Ribbon to access the features that you use fre-
quently. The Quick Access toolbar is on the left side of the screen, above the
Ribbon and to the right of the Office button (see Figure 1-6).
Figure 1-6
The Quick Access toolbar is the only area of the new user interface that you can
customize by adding commands to the three default commands (Save, Undo,
and Redo).
Follow these steps to add a command to the toolbar:
1. Select the Ribbon tab that houses the command you want to add.
2. Right-click the command and choose Add to Quick Access Toolbar in the
menu that appears.
To quickly add some common commands to the Quick Access toolbar,
click the arrow to the right of the toolbar and choose a command from
the menu.
You can add an entire command group to the Quick Access toolbar. Just right-
click an area in the command group name (for example, Font) and choose Add
to Quick Access Toolbar.
14 Part 1: Getting to Know Excel 2007
Follow these steps to remove a command (including the default commands)
from the toolbar:
1. Right-click the command you want to remove from the toolbar.
2. Choose Remove from Quick Access Toolbar in the menu that appears.
If you think you’ll be adding a lot of commands to the Quick Access toolbar, it’s a
good idea to move the toolbar from the title bar to a separate location below the
Ribbon. Right-click anywhere on the toolbar and choose Place Quick Access
Toolbar below the Ribbon in the menu that appears. You can regain screen area
for working in the worksheet by double-clicking a Ribbon tab (or pressing
Ctrl+F1) to hide the Ribbon controls temporarily.
You can access commands on the Quick Access toolbar using the keyboard. Press
the Alt key and then a number key that represents the KeyTip for the command
you want to access. See also “Tipping off your keyboard,” earlier in this part.
Introducing the Office Menu
Excel 2007 introduces a new menu for working with documents and accessing
special Excel options. The menu is accessed by clicking the Office button (the
large round button with the Office logo), located at the top-left corner of the
Excel screen. See Figure 1-7.
Figure 1-7
Introducing the Quick Access Toolbar — Formatting with Themes 15
The menu is divided into two sections. The left section contains a list of document-
related commands. By default, the right section displays a list of recently used
documents. Click a document name in the list to open the file. Click a pushpin
to the right of a document name to keep the document on the list permanently.
By default, Excel lists 17 documents, which get overridden with new documents
unless you use the pushpin control. Some file commands on the left section
include a built-in or attached arrow. If you hover the mouse pointer over a com-
mand with an attached arrow, you will see a clear demarcation between the
button and the arrow. Clicking a button with a built-in arrow or the arrow por-
tion of a button with an attached arrow displays additional choices in the right
section of the menu.
The Office menu also includes a button to access various Excel options and a
button to exit Excel. We encourage you to visit the options from time to time,
because you may find useful application, workbook, or worksheet options that
you want to turn on or off. An option in the Advanced section of the Excel
Options dialog box, for example, allows you to increase the number of docu-
ments displayed in the Recent Documents list to a maximum of 50.
Previewing Your Formatting Live
New in Excel 2007 is a Live Preview feature. When you hover over a formatting
option with the mouse pointer, Excel lets you see the effect that the formatting
option will have on your selection before you commit to applying the option.
Your selection might be a cell, range of cells, chart, table, shape, and more.
Suppose that you want to change the font of some text in a cell. In the Ribbon, a
drop-down box called the font picker presents a list of available fonts. As you
hover over each choice in the font picker, your cell updates to show you what
the text would look like if you chose that font. Live Preview avoids the normal
tedium of committing to an option, then undoing the option because the result
is not what you wanted, and then committing to another option, only to realize
that you don’t like the new result either, and so on.
You will find Live Preview options throughout Excel in places where formatting
alternatives are available — most notably in galleries.
Formatting with Themes
In Excel 2007, you can now use a formatting concept known as a theme. A theme
consists of a combination of fonts, colors, and effects that provide a consistent
look among your workbook’s elements, including cells, charts, tables, and
PivotTables. You apply the theme’s fonts, colors, and effects through individual
options or the style galleries of the various elements.
16 Part 1: Getting to Know Excel 2007
Excel applies a default theme to all new workbooks along with a theme gallery
so that you can change the default theme. After you select a new theme, all gal-
leries and all the elements in your workbook formatted with theme styles
change to match the new theme.
Following is a description of the three parts of a theme:
Theme font: A theme uses two complementary fonts — a header font and a
body font. All elements using themed styles thus use the same font or
fonts. Click the arrow on the drop-down box (called the font picker) in the
Ribbon’s Home tab to see the fonts used in the theme currently applied to
the workbook.
Theme color: A theme uses a matched set of twelve colors. Click the arrow
on the Fill Color or Font Color tool in the Font group of the Home tab to see
ten of the colors used in the theme currently applied to the workbook (see
Figure 1-8).
Figure 1-8
The following are characteristics of theme colors:
• The top row in a color picker displays the base theme colors, and the
next five rows display various tints and shades of the base colors.
Below the theme colors are standard colors that do not change if the
theme is changed. If you want to apply specific formatting that doesn’t
change after you change the theme, use a standard color.
• The first four colors on the picker (from the left), are intended for text
and background use. These colors are designed so that light text
always shows well on a dark background, and vice versa.
• The next six colors are used for accents. Most of the theme-style gal-
leries in Excel make extensive use of accent colors.
The two colors that are not exposed on the color pickers are used for
hyperlinks (not discussed in this book).
Theme effect: Theme effects apply to graphic elements such as charts and
shapes and include three levels of styles for outlines, fills, and special
effects. Special effects include shadow, glow, bevel, and reflection.
Formatting with Themes — Soliciting Help 17
You can change the theme in a workbook by clicking the Themes button in the
Ribbon’s Page Layout tab and selecting a new theme from the gallery that appears.
Remember: The three Microsoft Office applications — Excel 2007, Word 2007, and
PowerPoint 2007 — share the same themes. If you create reports that combine
elements from each application, your reports will have a consistent look if you
use a common theme.
Soliciting Help
With so many features and options available in Excel, it isn’t unusual to get
stuck once in a while. Fortunately, Excel provides the following methods for get-
ting help easily:
Enhanced ScreenTips: Standard ScreenTips (also called ToolTips) have
been available in Excel for some time and provide textual context to
commands. After you hover your mouse pointer over a command in earlier
versions of Excel, Excel displays the action of the command using either a
single word (such as Paste) or a brief phrase (such as Increase Font Size).
A standard ScreenTip helps to decipher the meaning of a command button,
for example, when the button has no associated text and the command
meaning is unclear from the button icon.
Enhanced ScreenTips take the concept a step further by adding a short
description explaining the purpose of the command (hence the prefix
Enhanced). Some Enhanced ScreenTips include an explanatory graphic
when a text description is insufficient to explain the meaning of the com-
mand. Enhanced ScreenTips are available for all commands on the Ribbon.
In many cases, the ScreenTip explanation provides enough information, so
you don’t have to seek additional help. By default, Excel 2007 uses
Enhanced ScreenTips for all commands.
Contextual help: If the Enhanced ScreenTip doesn’t offer enough for you
to understand the use of a specific command, you can get more detailed
help. After you hover the mouse pointer over the command, the Enhanced
ScreenTip that pops up lets you know whether additional help for the com-
mand is available by indicating that you can press F1 for more help.
If you are in a dialog box and need help for the dialog box options, press
the help button (the question mark) to get contextual help.
General help: Click the help button (the question mark) on the right side
of the Ribbon or press F1 when you are not in a specific context (for exam-
ple, the mouse pointer is not hovering over a command in the Ribbon) to
display a list of general help topics.
18 Part 1: Getting to Know Excel 2007
When you use contextual help or general help, Excel displays the help viewer,
shown in Figure 1-9. The viewer sports Internet browser-style controls. In fact, it
was built using the same technology that Microsoft uses in its Internet Explorer
browser application. Of course, the viewer is not a full-fledged browser because
you can view only Excel help content.
Search box
Home Print
Refresh Text size
Stop TOC
Forward Go (search) Maximize/Restore
Back Pin Search scope Minimize Close
Figure 1-9
Status bar Connection status
Search result window
Soliciting Help 19
The major features of the help viewer follow:
Search box: You can enter specific search text in this box. The viewer
stores a list of your text searches for the current help session. Click the
drop-down arrow on the side of the box to view and select an item from the
list if you want to review a previous search result.
Search button: Click the Search button (or press Enter) to initiate a search
after you enter the search text in the search box. Click the arrow next to
the search button to define the search scope. By default, if your computer
is connected to the Internet, Excel will display help content from an online
source. If possible, you should use this source as your first choice because
Microsoft updates the contents of online help regularly.
If you are offline when you initiate a search, Excel uses help content inter-
nal to your system. You can force Excel to use internal help content always
by clicking the arrow next to the Search button and choosing Offline Excel
Help from the menu.
Whether online or offline, you can narrow you search scope further by
selecting an appropriate option from the Search button menu.
Search result window: This window displays the results of your search
request. If you use contextual help or enter text in the search box, the
window displays help information specific to the context of the search. If
you use general help, the window displays a list of general help topics in
the form of titled links. Clicking a link displays a new set of links with more
specific titles. Click the specific link title that best matches your search cri-
terion to display detailed information on the topic.
Status bar: The left side of the status bar (located at the bottom of the help
viewer) displays the current search scope. The right side of the status bar
displays the connection status. You can click in the connection status area
to switch quickly between viewing online and offline help content.
Maximize/Restore button: Click this button for a full-screen view of the
help window. Click again to restore the window to its previous size.
Minimize button: Click this button to hide the help viewer window. Click
the Help button on the Windows taskbar (normally located below the Excel
window) to redisplay the viewer.
Close button: Click this button to close the help viewer.
Pin button: By default, Excel keeps the help viewer window on top when
you are working in the application. Use the Pin button to control this
behavior. If you “unpin” the viewer, Excel hides the window automatically if
you click anywhere inside the Excel window.
20 Part 1: Getting to Know Excel 2007
TOC (Table of Contents) button: Click this button to display a Table of
Contents pane on the left side of the help viewer. The pane displays the
same list of topics that the main windows displays after you select general
help or click the Home button. Clicking a main topic in the pane displays a
list of subtopics, similar to the subtopics that the main windows displays
after you click a general help topic link. The Table of Contents pane is con-
venient if you want to view the details of multiple subtopics in succession.
Text size button: Click this button to select a size for the text in the search
result window.
Print button: Click this button to print the help topic that the search result
window displays.
Home button: After browsing multiple helps topics in the search result
window, you might want to return to the list of main help topics to choose
another general topic link. Click the Home button to return to the list of
main help topics.
Refresh button: Click this button to refresh the help topic list after you
connect or disconnect from the Internet while the help viewer is open.
Stop button: Click this button to cancel a search request if the help viewer
is experiencing difficulties connecting to the online help source.
Back and Forward buttons: After browsing multiple helps topics in the
search result window, you might want to navigate among results and various
levels of detail. Click the Back or Forward button to perform your navigation.
If you want to resize the help viewer window, move the mouse pointer to any
edge of the window until the pointer changes to a double-headed arrow, and
then drag the mouse.
Part 2
Managing Workbooks
Working with documents is critical to using any software. Microsoft Excel docu-
ments are known as workbooks. This part covers the procedures that you need
to know to manage workbook documents efficiently.
In this part . . .
Arranging Windows Automatically
Comparing Two Workbooks Side by Side
Creating an Empty Workbook
Creating Multiple Windows (Views) for a Workbook
Opening and Saving Files
Protecting and Unprotecting a Workbook
Working with Workbook Templates
22 Part 2: Managing Workbooks
Activating a Workbook
A workbook is active when its window is maximized in the Excel window or after
you select any part of the workbook when its window is not maximized. See also
“Familiarizing Yourself with the Excel 2007 Window,” in Part 1 and “Switching
among Open Workbooks,” later in this part.
Arranging Windows Automatically
If you want all your open workbook windows visible on-screen, you can move
and resize them manually — or you can have Excel do it automatically. Follow
these steps to make all open workbooks visible on the Excel screen:
1. Click the View tab in the Ribbon.
2. Click the Arrange All button. Excel displays the Arrange Windows dialog
box.
3. Choose from the Tiled, Horizontal, Vertical, or Cascade options.
4. Click OK.
You can save the layout of your open workbooks for future use. See “Using a
Workspace File,” later in this part.
See also “Comparing Two Workbooks Side by Side,” later in this part.
Changing the Default File Location
When you’re opening a document in Excel, by default the Open dialog box
points to the My Documents folder (Windows XP) or the Documents folder
(Windows Vista) as the starting location to open documents. If you keep fre-
quently used documents in a different folder, you may want the Open dialog box
to point to this different folder to save some navigation steps. To change the
default folder, follow these steps:
1. Click the Office button, and then click the Excel Options button. The Excel
Options dialog box appears. The options are divided into sections, which
appear in a list on the left side of the dialog box.
2. Click the Save section.
Activating a Workbook — Closing a Workbook 23
3. In the Default File Location text box, enter the path of the new default
starting location to open documents. For example, if your new default
document location is in a subfolder named Excel, which itself is in the My
Documents or Documents folder, add \Excel to the default path. The new
location in the text box should read C:\Users\Username\Documents\
Excel, where Username is the actual name of the user indicated in the
text box.
4. Click OK.
Closing a Workbook
If you’re no longer working with a workbook , you may want to close the work-
book so that you can work on other documents without distraction. Closing
unneeded workbooks also frees memory and minimizes potential screen clutter.
To close the unneeded workbook or workbooks, follow these steps:
1. If multiple workbooks are open, ensure that the workbook you want to
close is active as follows: Click the View tab on the Ribbon, click the
Switch Windows button, and select the workbook from the list of names in
the menu.
2. Use any of the following methods to close the workbook:
• Click the Office button and then choose Close.
• Click the Close button on the far right of the Ribbon tab area (or on
the workbook’s title bar if the workbook is not maximized).
• Double-click the Control button on the far left of the workbook’s title
bar if the workbook is not maximized.
• Press Ctrl+F4.
• Press Ctrl+W.
If you’ve made any changes to your workbook since the last time you saved it,
Excel asks whether you want to save the changes before closing the workbook.
24 Part 2: Managing Workbooks
Comparing Two Workbooks Side by Side
Sometimes you have two versions of a workbook, and you want to compare the dif-
ferences in the data visually. Excel provides a convenient feature that allows you to
compare two documents side by side. To use this feature, follow these steps:
1. Open the workbooks you want to compare.
2. Click the View tab on the Ribbon and then click the View Side by Side
button. Excel arranges the windows of the two workbooks horizontally. If
you have more than two workbooks open, Excel displays a dialog box
from which you select the name of the workbook you want to compare
with the active workbook.
3. Click a worksheet tab in each workbook to display the worksheet data you
want to compare.
4. In the View tab, click the Synchronous Scrolling button to toggle synchro-
nized scrolling on and off. After you enable synchronized scrolling,
the rows and columns in the two worksheets being compared scroll
simultaneously.
5. You can click the Reset Window Position button in the View tab to ensure
that the two workbook windows are sized equally and aligned horizon-
tally. You need to use the button only if you adjust either or both window
sizes during the current session.
You can save the layout of the open workbooks you’re comparing for future use.
See “Using a Workspace File,” later in this part.
Creating an Empty Workbook
After you start Excel, it automatically creates a new (empty) workbook that it
calls Book1. If you’re starting a new project from scratch, you can use this blank
workbook.
You can create another blank workbook in the following ways:
Press Ctrl+N.
Click the Office button, choose New, select Blank Workbook, and click
Create.
You can add a button to the Quick Access toolbar that allows you to create a
blank workbook with a single mouse click. Click the arrow to the right of the
Quick Access toolbar and choose New from the menu. Excel adds the New button
to the toolbar. See also “Working with the Quick Access Toolbar,” in Part 1.
Comparing Two Workbooks Side by Side — Opening Nonstandard Files 25
Creating Multiple Windows (Views) for a Workbook
Sometimes, you want to view two parts of a worksheet at once. Or you want to
see more than one sheet in the same workbook at the same time. You can
accomplish either of these actions by displaying your workbook in one or more
additional windows.
To create a new view of the active workbook, click the View tab on the Ribbon
and then click the New Window button. Excel displays a new window for the
active workbook. To help you keep track of the windows, Excel appends a colon
and a number to the workbook name in each window, as shown in Figure 2-1.
Figure 2-1
See also “Arranging Windows Automatically,” earlier in this part, and “Comparing
Two Workbooks Side by Side,” earlier in this part.
Remember: A single workbook can have as many views (that is, separate win-
dows) as you want.
Displaying multiple windows for a workbook also makes copying information
from one worksheet to another easier. You can use Excel’s drag-and-drop proce-
dures to copy a cell, a range, or a chart. See also “Copying Cells and Ranges,” in
Part 4, and “Resizing, Moving, Copying, and Deleting an Embedded Chart,” in
Part 10.
Opening Nonstandard Files
In addition to files in its native format, Excel 2007 can open files in non-Excel
2007 formats, including older Excel and text files. Excel 2007 can open files that
weren’t saved in its native format by using filters to open the foreign file as a
workbook document.
26 Part 2: Managing Workbooks
To open a file in a non-Excel 2007 format, follow these steps:
1. Click the Office button and then choose Open. Excel displays the Open
dialog box.
2. Windows XP: In the Files of Type drop-down list, select the file type.
Windows Vista: Click the button located above the Open and Close button
and choose a file type from the menu. By default, the button text reads All
Excel Files (*.xl*;*.xlsx;*.xlsm) but the text changes if you select a differ-
ent file type.
3. Windows XP: In the Look In drop-down list, navigate to the folder that con-
tains the file.
Windows Vista: In the Folders window on the left side of the dialog box,
navigate to the folder that contains the document. If the Folders window
isn’t displayed, click Folders.
4. Select the file and click Open, or double-click the filename.
See also “Opening a Workbook,” immediately following this section.
Opening a Workbook
If you open a workbook in Excel, the entire document loads into memory, and
any changes that you make occur only in the copy that’s in memory.
To open an existing workbook , follow these steps:
1. Click the Office button and then choose Open to display the Open
dialog box. Alternatively, press Ctrl+O or Ctrl+F12 to display the Open
dialog box.
2. Windows XP: In the Look In drop-down list, navigate to the folder that con-
tains the document.
Windows Vista: In the Folders window on the left side of the dialog box,
navigate to the folder that contains the document. If the Folders window
isn’t displayed, click Folder (see Figure 2-2).
3. Select the workbook in the selected folder and click Open, or double-click
the filename.
You can select more than one document in the Open dialog box. The trick is to
press and hold Ctrl while you click each document. After you select all the docu-
ments you want, click Open.
Opening a Workbook — Protecting and Unprotecting a Workbook 27
Figure 2-2
Remember: You can open a workbook you have worked with recently without
navigating through the Open dialog box. On the right side of the Office menu,
Excel provides a Recent Documents list. If the document that you want to open
appears in this list, you can choose it directly from the menu.
Protecting and Unprotecting a Workbook
Excel provides several levels of protection for your sensitive work. Here are
some ways you can protect your workbooks. You can protect
A workbook from being opened by unauthorized personnel
A workbook from being saved with the same filename
A workbook’s structure (control the manipulation of worksheets in a
workbook)
A workbook’s windows (control the sizing and positioning of a workbook’s
windows and any workbook views you create)
You should write down any passwords you use and store them in a safe location.
If you forget or lose your passwords, you won’t be able to undo the areas you
protected by any normal means.
Safeguarding your workbook from unauthorized users
Follow these steps to restrict unauthorized personnel from opening or modify-
ing a workbook:
1. Open a workbook or select an already opened workbook you want to
protect.
28 Part 2: Managing Workbooks
2. Click the Office button and choose Save As. Excel displays the Save As
dialog box.
3. Click Tools and choose General Options from the menu. Excel displays the
General Options dialog box.
4. In the Password to Open text box, enter a password that must be used
before a user can open the workbook.
5. In the Password to Modify text box, enter a password that must be used
before a user can save the workbook under the same filename. Passwords
can be up to 15 characters and are case sensitive.
6. Click OK. Excel asks you to reenter the passwords for confirmation.
7. Reenter the passwords.
8. Windows XP: In the Save In drop-down, select the folder in which to save
the workbook and then click Save.
Windows Vista: If the Folders window isn’t displayed, click Browse
Folders, click Folders to display the Folders window, and then select the
folder in which to save the document. Then click Save.
9. If you’re saving the workbook with the same name, respond when Excel
displays a message asking you to confirm overwriting the file.
To remove passwords from the workbook, follow the previous steps, except
delete the passwords in Step 4, Step 5, or both.
See also “Saving Files,” later in this part.
If you are using a workbook saved in an earlier version of Excel, Excel 2007 displays
a message offering to convert the workbook to the Office XML file format (the
default file format) before you save the workbook with passwords. You should
choose to accept the suggestion only if you will not be sharing the workbook with
users who have earlier versions of Excel. See also “Saving Files,” later in this part.
The General Options dialog box offers other safeguarding options. Select the
Always Create a Backup check box if you want Excel to always save a backup
copy of the existing workbook before you save the workbook. If you select the
Read Only Recommended check box, when the workbook is opened, Excel dis-
plays a message suggesting that the workbook be opened as read only. The user,
however, can choose to ignore the suggestion.
Protecting and unprotecting a workbook structure or window
To protect a workbook structure or window properties from accidental or inten-
tional alteration, follow these steps:
Protecting and Unprotecting a Workbook — Saving Files 29
1. Click the Review tab on the Ribbon and then click the Protect Workbook
button. Excel displays the Protect Workbook dialog box.
2. Select the appropriate check box(es), as follows:
• Structure prevents any of the following changes to a workbook sheet:
adding, deleting, moving, renaming, hiding, or unhiding.
• Windows protects the workbook window from being moved or resized.
3. If you feel that you need a high level of protection, supply a password
in the Password text box, and click OK. When Excel requests that you
reenter the password for confirmation, do so.
4. Click OK.
To unprotect a workbook structure or window, click the Review tab on the
Ribbon and then click the Unprotect Workbook button. If you did not supply a
password when the workbook was protected, Excel unprotects the workbook
automatically. Otherwise, Excel prompts you to enter a password.
Saving Files
When you save a workbook, Excel saves the copy in memory to your drive —
overwriting the previous copy of the workbook. When you save a workbook for
the first time, Excel displays its Save As dialog box.
Excel 2007 uses a new default format for saving workbook documents. This new
format is based on the Extensible Markup Language (XML). Office 2007 applica-
tions use an extension to XML called Office Open XML. Workbooks saved in
Office Open XML maintain full fidelity with everything in your document, includ-
ing (in the case of Excel) formulas, formatting, charts, tables, and macros. XML
and Office Open XML are text-based formats (versus the binary formats found in
earlier versions of Office applications).
You don’t need to have a complete (or even partial) knowledge of XML or Office
XML to work in Excel 2007. However, it is useful to know that Excel 2007, like ear-
lier versions, saves files with a different file extension depending on the type of
file you are saving. A list of the standard file types and the extension names they
use are given in the following table. We also include the corresponding file exten-
sions used in earlier versions of Excel.
30 Part 2: Managing Workbooks
File Type 2007 Extension Pre-2007 Extension
Excel workbook default format .xlsx .xls
Excel macro-enabled workbook .xlsm .xls
Excel workbook template .xltx .xlt
Excel macro-enabled workbook template .xltm .xlt
Excel binary workbook .xlsb .xls
Excel add-in .xlam .xla
Excel workspace .xlw .xlw
Excel user interface customization* .xlb .xlb
* In Excel 2007, you can customize the Quick Access toolbar as we discuss in Part 1. In earlier versions of Excel, you can customize an existing
menu or toolbar or create a menu or toolbar. Excel saves these customizations automatically in an .xlb file, whose location depends on the
operating system you’re using (Windows XP or Windows Vista).
Remember: Unlike earlier versions of Excel, the table indicates that Excel 2007
workbooks or templates containing macros (scripts written to enhance Excel in
some manner) are stored in files that differ from files without macros. If you
attempt to save a macro-based workbook or template in a format that doesn’t
support macros (.xlsx or .xltx), Excel gives you the option to save the file with-
out macros or to select a format that supports macros (.xlsm or .xltm).
Saving a workbook
Use any of the following methods to save the active workbook:
Click the Office button and then choose Save.
Click the Save button on the Quick Access toolbar.
Press Ctrl+S.
Press Shift+F12.
If the document you’re saving does not yet have a name, Excel prompts you for a
name by opening its Save As dialog box. You can give the document a name and
navigate to the folder where you want to store the file. See also “Saving a work-
book under a different name,” in the next section.
Saving a workbook under a different name
Sometimes you may want to keep multiple versions of your work by saving each
successive version under a different name.
To save a workbook with a different name, follow these steps:
Saving Files 31
1. Click the Office button and then choose Save As. Excel displays the Save
As dialog box.
2. Windows XP: In the Save In drop-down list, select the folder in which to
save the workbook.
Windows Vista: If the Folders window isn’t displayed, click Browse
Folders, click Folders to display the Folders window, and then select the
folder in which to save the workbook (see FIgure 2-3).
3. In the File Name text box, enter a new filename. (You don’t need to include
a file extension.)
4. Click Save.
Figure 2-3
Excel creates a new copy of the workbook with a different name, but the original
version of the workbook remains intact. (Note that the original workbook is no
longer open.)
Saving a workbook in a different or earlier file format
To share a workbook with someone who uses an application that opens files in a
format other than Excel 2007, be sure to save the workbook in a file format that
the other application can read.
Excel can save workbook contents in many non-Excel file formats, such as, tab-
or comma-delimited text, html, and standard xml.
To save a workbook in a different file format, follow these steps: