Excel 2007 - Getting help

This article introduces the basic elements of the new Microsoft Office Fluent user interface in Microsoft Office Excel 2007. It also provides lists of commands that you may already be familiar with in Microsoft Office Excel 2003, showing you how to accomplish the same results in Office Excel 2007.

Important This article is designed as a quick reference tool only, and is not intended for training or learning purposes.

In this article

Introducing the new interface

Adding commands to the Quick Access Toolbar

New locations of familiar commands

Introducing the new interface

In Office Excel 2007, the new Office Fluent user interface replaces menus, toolbars, and most of the task panes from earlier versions of Excel with a single mechanism that is simple and discoverable. The Office Fluent user interface is designed to help you be more productive in Excel, more easily find the right features for various tasks, discover new functionality, and be more efficient.

This article is designed for experienced Excel 2003 users — Help desk personnel, IT professionals, and others who are already familiar with the Excel 2003 interface — who want to find familiar commands quickly in Office Excel 2007.

Office Fluent user interface

The primary replacement for menus and toolbars in Office Excel 2007 is the Ribbon, a component of the Office Fluent user interface. Designed for easy browsing, the Ribbon consists of tabs that are organized around specific scenarios or objects. The controls on each tab are further organized into several groups. The Ribbon can host richer content than menus and toolbars can, including buttons, galleries, and dialog box content.

Tabs are designed to be task-oriented.

Groups within each tab break a task into subtasks.

Command buttons in each group carry out a command or display a menu of commands.

Tabs that appear only when you need them

In addition to the standard set of tabs that you see on the Office Fluent Ribbon whenever you start Office Excel 2007, there are two other kinds of tabs, which appear in the interface only when they are useful for the type of task you are currently performing.

Contextual tools Contextual tools enable you to work with an object that you select on the page, such as a table, picture, or drawing. When you click the object, the pertinent set of contextual tabs appear in an accent color next to the standard tabs.

Select an item in your document.

The name of the applicable contextual tools appears in an accent color, and the contextual tabs appear next to the standard set of tabs.

The contextual tabs provide controls for working with the selected item.

Program tabs Program tabs replace the standard set of tabs when you switch to certain authoring modes or views, including Print Preview.

Menus, toolbars and other familiar elements

In addition to tabs, groups, and commands, Office Excel 2007 uses other elements that also provide paths for accomplishing your tasks. The following elements are more like the menus and toolbars that you are already familiar with from earlier versions of Excel. The Excel Ribbon mapping workbook directs you to a workbook that contains all of the mapped elements.

Microsoft Office Button This button is located in the upper-left corner of the Excel window and opens the menu shown here.

Quick Access Toolbar The Quick Access Toolbar is located by default at the top of the Excel window and provides quick access to tools that you use frequently. You can customize the Quick Access Toolbar by adding commands to it.

Dialog Box Launchers Dialog Box Launchers are small icons that appear in some groups. Clicking a Dialog Box Launcher opens a related dialog box or task pane, providing more options related to that group.