Excel® 2013 On Demand

Closing a Workbook and Exiting Excel

After you finish working on a workbook, you can close it. Closing a workbook frees up more computer memory for other activities. Closing a workbook is different from exiting, or quitting, Excel; after you close a workbook, Excel is still running. You close a workbook by using the Close command on the File tab (New!), which keeps the Excel program window open. Since each workbook opens in its own program window, you don’t need an Exit command, so you exit Excel by using the Close button (New!) on the program window. To protect your files, always save your documents and exit before turning off the computer.

Close a Workbook

Click the File tab, and then click Close.

Timesaver

Press Ctrl+W.

If you have ...