Understanding Workbooks and Worksheets
The work you do in Excel is performed in a workbook file, which appears in its own window. You can have as many workbooks open as you need. By default, Excel 2007 workbooks use an XLSX file extension.
Each workbook is comprised of one or more worksheets, and each worksheet is made up of individual cells. Each cell contains a value, a formula, or text. A worksheet also has an invisible draw layer, which holds charts, images, and diagrams. Each worksheet in a workbook is accessible by clicking the tab at the bottom of the workbook window. In addition, workbooks can store chart sheets. A chart sheet displays a single chart and is also accessible by clicking a tab.
Newcomers to Excel are often intimidated by all the different elements that appear within Excel’s window. Once you become familiar with the various parts, it all starts to make sense.
Figure 12-7 shows you the more important bits and pieces of Excel. As you look at the figure, refer to Table 12-3 for a brief explanation of the items shown in the figure.
Figure 12-7. The Excel screen has many useful elements that you will use often.
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Active cell indicator | This dark outline, also called the cell selector, indicates the currently active cell (one of the 17,179,869,184 cells on each worksheet). |
| Application close button | Clicking this button closes Excel. |
| Window close button | Clicking this button closes the active workbook window. |
| Column letters | Letters range from A to XFD—one for each of the 16,384 columns in the worksheet. You can click a column heading to select an entire column of cells. |
| Office button | This button leads to lots of commands for working with your document, or Excel in general. |
| Formula bar | When you enter information or formulas into Excel, they appear in this line. |
| Horizontal scrollbar | Enables you to scroll the sheet horizontally. |
| Maximize/Restore button | Clicking this button increases the workbook window’s size to fill your monitor’s workspace. If the window is already maximized, clicking this button Restores Excel’s window down to its previous window size so that it no longer fills the entire screen. |
| Minimize application button | Clicking this button minimizes Excel’s window down to the Windows taskbar. |
| Minimize window button | Clicking this button minimizes the workbook window. |
| Name box | Displays the active cell address or the name of the selected cell, range, or object. |
| Page view buttons | Change the way the worksheet is displayed by clicking one of these buttons. |
| Quick Access Toolbar | A toolbar that you customize to hold commonly-used commands |
| Ribbon | The main location to find Excel’s commands. Clicking a tab changes the Ribbon buttons that appear. |
| Row numbers | Numbers range from 1 to 1,048,576—one for each row in the worksheet. You can click a row number to select an entire row of cells. |
| Sheet tabs | Each of these notebook-like tabs represents a different sheet in the workbook. A workbook can have any number of sheets, and each sheet has its name displayed in a sheet tab. By default, each new workbook that you create contains three sheets. Add a new sheet by clicking the Insert Worksheet button (which is displayed after the last sheet tab). |
| Sheet tab scroll buttons | These buttons let you scroll the sheet tabs to display tabs that aren’t visible. |
| Status bar | This bar displays various messages as well as the status of the Num Lock, Caps Lock, and Scroll Lock keys on your keyboard. It also shows summary information about the range of cells that is selected. Right-click the status bar to change the information that’s displayed |
| Title bar | All Windows programs have a title bar, which displays the name of the program and the name of the current workbook and also holds some control buttons that you can use to modify the window. |
| Vertical scrollbar | Lets you scroll the sheet vertically. |
| Zoom control | A slider control that lets you zoom your worksheet in and out. |