Spreadsheets - The Excel Interface

Excel Introduction

Microsoft Excel is the spreadsheet in the Microsoft Office office suite. To start it, simply click on the appropriate icon in the Start menu (in Windows) or click on an Excel file (that has an .xls file extension).

A Excel document is called a file and it contains one or more worksheets shown by tabs at the bottom of the page.

Interface Introduction

The Microsoft Excel interface is presented below:

It is made up of various elements:

1. A title bar that shows the application name and the name of the open file
2. A menu bar that provides access to the various functions of the spreadsheet
3. A tool bar in icon form that offers direct access to the main functions. It is interesting to note that this bar can be personalised to allow shortcuts to the most used functions
4. A formula bar showing the coordinates of the selected cell and its contents. The formula bar allows data to be entered in cells
5. The worksheet is the key to the spreadsheet; it is the table that contains all the cells. Tabs that allow the user to switch between worksheets are located at the bottom of the worksheet.
6. The status bar provides information about required actions. By default, the message ready is shown in the status bar