Microsoft Excel 365 Bible

CHAPTER 6Understanding Excel Files and Templates

IN THIS CHAPTER

1. Creating a new workbook
2. Opening an existing workbook
3. Saving and closing workbooks
4. Working with templates

This chapter describes the operations that you perform with workbook files: opening, saving, closing, and so on. It discusses how Excel uses files and provides an overview of the various types of files. Most of the file operations discussed here occur in the Backstage view, the screen that you see when you click the File button above the Excel Ribbon. It also discusses templates, a special kind of workbook file.

Creating a New Workbook

When you start Excel, it displays a Start screen that lists recently used files and shows templates that you can use as the basis for a new workbook. One of the template options is Blank Workbook, which gives you an empty workbook. Figure 6.1 shows a portion of the Start screen.

TIP

If you prefer to skip the Start screen and always start with an empty workbook, choose File ➪ Options. In the Excel Options dialog box, click the General tab and remove the check mark from the option labeled Show the Start Screen When This Application Starts.

After you start Excel and create a blank workbook, the empty workbook is called Book1. This workbook exists only in memory, and it hasn't been saved to disk. By default, this workbook contains one worksheet named Sheet1. If you're starting a project from scratch, you can use this blank workbook. By the way, you can change the ...