Learn Excel 2011 for Mac

Secrets of the Ribbon

The Ribbon is the control strip that runs across the top of the Excel window below the window's title bar and any toolbars you've chosen to display. The Ribbon is a control bar that contains multiple tabs, each containing several groups of controls. At any time, the Ribbon displays one tab's contents; to switch to the contents of another tab, you click that tab. As you can see in Figure 1–2, the active tab is a different color than the other tabs, so you can easily pick it out.

NOTE: To make clear where you find the controls, I give Ribbon instructions in the sequence tab–group–control. For example, “choose Formulas Audit ...