Excel 2003: The Missing Manual

Appendix C. Quick Menu Reference

In this appendix, you’ll get a quick tour of Excel’s menus, left to right and top to bottom. Keep in mind that Excel’s menus aren’t set in stone. Various factors can change its menu structure, including whatever Excel add-ins you’re running, the specific version of Excel you use, any currently selected object, and your own menu customizations. The menu choices covered in this appendix assume you’re using Excel 2003 and you haven’t rearranged anything.

File Menu

The File menu has everything you need to open, save, and print workbooks. It also has a few extra frills for converting your data into a Web page and sending Excel files and data by email.

New

This command is the first step in creating a new, blank workbook. When you select New, Excel shows the New Workbook task on the right side of the main window. The links in this window help you create a new blank workbook (click the “Blank workbook” link) or one based on an existing template. For information about using templates, see Chapter 15.

Open

Choose File → Open to launch the Open dialog box, where you can browse to an existing Excel workbook file (.xls) and load it up. The Open dialog box also has a “Files of type” list where you can choose a different format (for example, to import the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets you created in 1995). For the full scoop on opening and importing, see Section 1.5 (Chapter 1).

Close

This command closes the workbook in the current window. If you have at least one workbook ...