• Excel 2007 versus Excel 2003 and earlier
  
• Excel 2007 Interface
• The Ribbon for each of hte 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

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.
  We now explain this user interface.  
  

EXCEL 2007 INTERFACE

The following website
Microsoft Office Online Training: Up to speed with Excel 2007
is quite helpful and is the basis for the summary given below.

At the highest level is the Ribbon

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

1. Tabs:
   - The seven tabs are Home, Insert, Page Layout, Formulas, Data, Review, View.
   - The above example uses the Home tab.
   
2. Groups:
   - These show related items together.
   - For example, there is the Font group (within the Home tab).
   
3. 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).