Special Edition Using Microsoft® Office XP

Working with Worksheets and Workbooks

The basic building blocks of Excel haven't changed much in the past few versions of Office. Excel's default file format is still the workbook (file extension .xls), which can hold multiple worksheets. By default, each new Excel workbook starts out with three blank worksheets; an index tab at the bottom of each worksheet identifies the sheet by name. You can add a new worksheet, delete an existing worksheet, and rename or rearrange worksheets to suit your needs.

Multiple worksheets help keep complex projects organized within a single workbook. In a consolidated budget, for example, you might create a separate worksheet for each department's numbers, using identical templates to make sure each budget category ...