Part I: Getting In on the Ground Floor

As the name implies, in this part I cover such fundamentals as how to start the program, identify the parts of the screen, enter information in the worksheet, save a document, and so on. If you’re starting with absolutely no background in using spreadsheets, you definitely want to glance at the information in Chapter 1 to discover the secrets of the new Ribbon interface before you move on to how to create new worksheets in Chapter 2.

Part II: Editing Without Tears

In this part, I show how to edit spreadsheets to make them look good, as well as how to make major editing changes to them without courting disaster. Peruse Chapter 3 when you need information on formatting the data to improve the way it appears in the worksheet. See Chapter 4 for rearranging, deleting, or inserting new information in the worksheet. And read Chapter 5 for the skinny on printing out your finished product.

Part III: Getting Organized and Staying That Way

Here I give you all kinds of information on how to stay on top of the data that you’ve entered into your spreadsheets. Chapter 6 is full of good ideas on how to keep track of and organize the data in a single worksheet. Chapter 7 gives you the ins and outs of working with data in different worksheets in the same workbook and gives you information on transferring data between the sheets of different workbooks.

Part IV: Digging Data Analysis

This part consists of two chapters. Chapter 8 gives you an introduction to performing various types of what-if analysis in Excel, including setting up data tables with one and two inputs, performing goal seeking, and creating different cases with Scenario Manager. Chapter 9 introduces you to Excel’s vastly improved pivot table and pivot chart capabilities that enable you to summarize and filter vast amounts of data in a worksheet table or data list in a compact tabular or chart format.

Part V: Life Beyond the Spreadsheet

In Part V, I explore some of the other aspects of Excel besides the spreadsheet. In Chapter 10, you find out just how ridiculously easy it is to create a chart using the data in a worksheet. In Chapter 11, you discover just how useful Excel’s data list capabilities can be when you have to track and organize a large amount of information. In Chapter 12, you find out about using add-in programs to enhance Excel’s basic features, adding hyperlinks to jump to new places in a worksheet, to new documents, and even to Web pages, as well as how to record macros to automate your work.

Part VI: The Part of Tens

As is the tradition in For Dummies books, the last part contains lists of the top ten most useful and useless facts, tips, and suggestions. In this part, you find three chapters. Chapter 13 provides my top ten list of the best new features in Excel 2007 (and boy was it hard keeping it down to just ten). Chapter 14 gives you the top ten beginner basics you need to know as you start using this program. And Chapter 15 gives you the King James Version of the Ten Commandments of Excel 2007. With this chapter under your belt, how canst thou goest astray?

Keyboard and mouse

Excel 2007 is a sophisticated program with a whole new and wonderful user interface, dubbed the Ribbon. In Chapter 1, I explain all about this new Ribbon interface and how to get comfortable with its new command structure. Throughout the book, you’ll find Ribbon command sequences using the shorthand developed by Microsoft whereby the name on the tab on the Ribbon and the command button you select are separated by vertical bars as in:

This is shorthand for the Ribbon command that copies whatever cells or graphics are currently selected to the Windows Clipboard. It means that you click the Home tab on the Ribbon (if it’s not already displayed) and then click the Copy button (that sports the traditional side-by-side page icon).

Some of the Ribbon command sequences involve not only selecting a command button on a tab but then also selecting an item on a drop-down menu. In this case, the drop-down menu command follows the name of the tab and command button, all separated by vertical bars, as in:

This is shorthand for the Ribbon command sequence that turns on manual recalculation in Excel. It says that you click the Formulas tab (if it’s not already displayed) and then click the Calculation Options button followed by the Manual drop-down menu option.

Although you use the mouse and keyboard shortcut keys to move your way in, out, and around the Excel worksheet, you do have to take some time to enter the data so that you can eventually mouse around with it. Therefore, this book occasionally encourages you to type something specific into a specific cell in the worksheet. Of course, you can always choose not to follow the instructions. When I tell you to enter a specific function, the part you should type generally appears in bold type. For example, =SUM(A2:B2) means that you should type exactly what you see: an equal sign, the word SUM, a left parenthesis, the text A2:B2 (complete with a colon between the letter-number combos), and a right parenthesis. You then, of course, have to press Enter to make the entry stick.

When Excel isn’t talking to you by popping up message boxes, it displays highly informative messages in the status bar at the bottom of the screen. This book renders messages that you see on-screen like this:

This is the message that tells you that Excel is in manual recalculation mode (after using the earlier Ribbon command sequence) and that one or more of the formulas in your worksheet are not up-to-date and are in sore need of recalculation.

Occasionally I give you a hot key combination that you can press in order to choose a command from the keyboard rather than clicking buttons on the Ribbon with the mouse. Hot key combinations are written like this: Alt+FS or Ctrl+S (both of these hot key combos save workbook changes).

With the Alt key combos, you press the Alt key until the hot key letters appear in little squares all along the Ribbon. At that point, you can release the Alt key and start typing the hot key letters (by the way, you type all lowercase hot key letters — I only put them in caps to make them stand out in the text).

Hot key combos that use the Ctrl key are of an older vintage and work a little bit differently. You have to hold down the Ctrl key as you type the hot letter (though again, type only lowercase letters unless you see the Shift key in the sequence, as in Ctrl+Shift+C).

Excel 2007 uses only one pull-down menu (the File pull-down menu) and one toolbar (the Quick Access toolbar). You open the File pull-down menu by clicking the Office Button (the four-color round button in the upper-left corner of Excel program window) or pressing Alt+F. The Quick Access toolbar with its four buttons appears to the immediate right of the Office Button.

All earlier versions of this book use command arrows to lead you from the initial pull-down menu, to the submenu, and so on, to the command you ultimately want. For example, if you need to open the File pull-down menu to get to the Open command, that instruction would look like this: Choose File⇒Open. This is the equivalent of Office Button | Open and Alt+FO. Commands using the older command arrow notation rather than the vertical bar notation occur only in the tables in Chapter 1 for people upgrading to Excel 2007 from older versions of Excel.

Finally, if you’re really observant, you may notice a discrepancy between the capitalization of the names of dialog box options (such as headings, option buttons, and check boxes) as they appear in text and how they actually appear in Excel on your computer screen. I intentionally use the convention of capitalizing the initial letters of all the main words of a dialog box option to help you differentiate the name of the option from the rest of the text describing its use.

Special icons

The following icons are strategically placed in the margins to point out stuff you may or may not want to read.

This icon alerts you to nerdy discussions that you may well want to skip (or read when no one else is around).

This icon alerts you to shortcuts or other valuable hints related to the topic at hand.

This icon alerts you to information to keep in mind if you want to meet with a modicum of success.

This icon alerts you to information to keep in mind if you want to avert complete disaster.

Where to Go from Here

If you’ve never worked with a computer spreadsheet, I suggest that, right after getting your chuckles with the cartoons, you first go to Chapter 1 and find out what you’re dealing with. And, if you’re someone with some experience with earlier versions of Excel, I want you to head directly to the section, “Migrating to Excel 2007 from Earlier Versions” in Chapter 1, where you find out how to stay calm as you become familiar and, yes, comfortable with the new Ribbon user interface.

Then, as specific needs arise (such as, “How do I copy a formula?” or “How do I print just a particular section of my worksheet?”), you can go to the table of contents or the index to find the appropriate section and go right to that section for answers.

Part I

Getting In on the Ground Floor

In this part . . .

O ne look at the Excel 2007 screen with its new Microsoft Office Button, Quick Access toolbar, and Ribbon, and you realize how much stuff is going on here. Well, not to worry: In Chapter 1, I break down the parts of the Excel 2007 Ribbon user interface and make some sense out of the rash of tabs and command buttons that you’re going to be facing day after day after day.

Of course, it’s not enough to just sit back and have someone like me explain what’s what on the screen. To get any good out of Excel, you’ve got to start learning how to use all these bells and whistles (or buttons and boxes, in this case). That’s where Chapter 2 comes in, giving you the lowdown on how to use some of the screen’s more prominent buttons and boxes to get your spreadsheet data entered. From this humble beginning, it’s a quick trip to total screen mastery.