Excel 2003 for Starters: The Missing Manual

Saving Files

As everyone who's been alive for at least three days knows, you should save your work early and often. Excel is no exception. You have two choices for saving a spreadsheet file:

• Save As. This choice lets you save your spreadsheet file with a new name. You can use Save As the first time you save a new spreadsheet, or you can use it to save a copy of your current spreadsheet with a new name, in a new folder, or as a different file type (alternate file formats are covered on Section 1.4.1). To use Save As, select File → Save As (or press F12) to display the Save As dialog box shown in Figure 1-14. Excel suggests you save your file in the My Documents folder, but you can save your document in whatever folder you like. To specify a folder, either click the icons on the left-hand side of the box, or choose from the drop-down "Save in" box. When you finish choosing a place to save your file, zip to the bottom of the Save As dialog box: here you type the file name and, finally, pick the file type.

Figure 1-14. At the bottom of the Save As dialog box, you can type in a file name and choose a file type.

• Save. This option updates the spreadsheet file with your most recent changes. If you use Save on a new file that hasn't been saved before, it has the same effect as Save As: Excel prompts you to choose a folder and file name. To use Save, select File → Save, or press Ctrl+S.

Tip

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