WINDOWS: Basics

EXCEL 2007 Basics: The Microsoft Office 2007 Interface

A. Colin Cameron, Dept. of Economics, Univ. of Calif. - Davis

This January 2009 help sheet gives a very brief overview of the MS Office 2007 Fluent Interface for Excel 2007.

Excel 2007 versus Excel 2003 and earlier
The Home Button
The Ribbon
The Ribbon for each of the seven Tabs
Summary of the seven Tabs

EXCEL 2007 versus EXCEL 2003 and earlier

For basic data analysis using the Data Analysis Toolpack, such as descriptive statistics and regression, versions of Microsoft Excel from 1997 on are adequate.

However, the user interface for Excel 2007 is much different from that in earlier versions. In particular

The File Menu is replaced with the Microsoft Office Button .
This is used to open, save and print files.
The other Menus (Edit, View, Insert, Format, Tools, Data, Window and Help) and drop-down dialog boxes and toolbar icons have been greatly rearranged and replaced by the Microsoft Office fluent user interface that uses Ribbons and Groups.

THE MICROSOFT OFFICE BUTTON

The office button is at the top left-hand corner of the Ribbon.
It replaces the File Menu of earlier versions of Office and Excel.
It is used to Open, Save, Print and Close files.

Office Button

THE RIBBON

The commands are organized by Tab and Group.
At the highest level is the Ribbon for each Tab.
Here this is is shown for the Home Tab.

Microsoft Office Excel 2007 ribbon

Eventually we want to get to commands that we use.
From the Ribbon the sequence is

Tabs:
- The seven tabs are Home, Insert, Page Layout, Formulas, Data, Review, View.
- The above example uses the Home tab.
Groups:
- These show related items together.
- For example, there is the Font group (within the Home tab).
Commands
- A command is a button, a box to enter information, or a menu.
- For example, there is the B button (in the Font group in the Home tab) to make text bold.
- The Dialog Box launcher is a small arrow that gives additional commands (e.g. at bottom right of the Font group).

THE RIBBON FOR EACH OF THE SEVEN TABS

For each of the seven tabs the Ribbon looks as follows on my computer (the look of the ribbon varies with screen resolution and with the active Excel document).
The most useful Groups for basic data analysis are highlighted.

1. Home Tab - Use to read in data and save data in various formats.

Home Ribbon

2. Insert Tab - Use to create Charts.

Insert Tab

3. Page Layout Tab

4. Formulas Tab

5. Data Tab - Use the Data Analysis add-in for histograms, descriptive statstics, regression, ....

NOTE: If the Data Analysis tab (far right) does not appear on your computer you need to activate it - see Excel 2007: access

6. Review Tab

7. View Tab

SUMMARY

For a two-page document showing the Office Button and the Ribbons for the seven Tabs click here.

The following summarizes the Groups within each of the Tabs.
For data analysis most useful is

Office Button: for handling files
Insert Tab: for charts
Formulas Tab: for formulas
Data Tab: for Data Analysis Add-in (if activated)

TAB	RIBBON	GROUPS WITHIN THE TAB (and Selected Commands within Group)
1. Home Tab	1Home.gif	Clipboard (cut, paste, ....)
		Font (font type, font size, bold, ....)
		Alignment (left-justified, centered, ....)
		Number ($, %, decimal places, ....)
		Styles (for tables, cells)
		Cells (insert and delete cell(s) or rows or columns)
		Editing (find, replace, ....)
2. Insert Tab	2Insert.gif	Tables
		Illustration (picture, clip art, ....)
		Charts (column, line, pie, scatter, ....)
		Links (hyperlinks)
		Text (insert text box, object, symbol, word art, ....)
3. Page Layout Tab	3Pagelayout.gif	Themes (select colors, fonts, ... for the entire document)
		Page Setup (margins, orientation, background, ....)
		Scale to Fit (scale or number of pages)
		Sheet options (gridlines, heading, ....)
		Arrange
4. Formulas Tab	4Formulas.gif	Function library (sum, financial, math, statistical (in more), ....)
		Defined names
		Formula auditing
		Calculation options
5. Data Tab	5Data.gif	Get External Data (from text, web, ....)
		Connections
		Sort and Filter (sort worksheet rows, ....)
		Data tools (text to columns)
		Outline
		Analysis (Data Analysis Add-in for histogram, descriptive statistics, regression, ....)
6. Review Tab	6Review.gif	Proofing (spellcheck, ....)
		Comments
		Changes (track worksheet changes, ....)
7. View Tab	7View.gif	Workbook Views (normal, page layout, ....)
		Show / Hide (gridlines, ....)
		Zoom (zoom level for screen display of worksheet cells)
		Windows (arrangements for multiple windows)
		Macros

The following website
Microsoft Office Online Training: Up to speed with Excel 2007
is quite helpful.

For further information on how to use Excel go to
http://cameron.econ.ucdavis.edu/excel/excel.html