101 Excel 2013 Tips, Tricks and Timesavers

Tip 1: Changing the Look of Excel

With Excel 2013, what you see isn’t necessarily what you have to live with. This tip describes several ways to change the look of Excel. Some changes affect only the appearance. Other options allow you to hide various parts of Excel to make more room for displaying your data — or maybe because you prefer a less-cluttered look.

Cosmetic changes

When the preview version of Microsoft Office 2013 became available, there was a minor uproar about its appearance. Compared to previous versions, the applications looked “flat” and many complained about the overall white color.

When the final version was released, Microsoft added two alternative Office themes: light gray and dark gray. To switch to a different theme, choose File⇒Options to display the Excel Options dialog box. Click the General tab and use the Office Theme drop-down list (see Figure 1-1). The theme choice affects the appearance of the title bar, row and column borders, task panes, the taskbar, and a few other items. The theme you choose applies to all other Office 2013 applications.

Figure 1-1: Selecting a different Office theme.

Figure 1-1 shows another option: Office Background. Use this drop-down list to select a background image that appears in the Excel title bar. Fortunately, one of the options is No Background.

Hiding the Ribbon

To hide the Ribbon, click the Ribbon Display Options ...