The Excel Ribbon is the most important aspect of the Excel interface and contains the great majority of the program’s commands. The Ribbon is arranged into a series of Tabs, each of which contains a series of related commands. Tabs are accessed simply by simply clicking on the name of each Tab. Within each Tab, commands are organised in groups: the name of each group is displayed at the bottom of the group.

The Home Tab contains the most frequently used commands. Here you’ll find the commands that are used all the time; commands related to the clipboard such as Cut Copy and Paste; commands for formatting the data within your cells; changing the font; changing the alignment and the appearance of numbers; commands for modifying cells such as inserting rows and columns; and finally commands for sorting and editing data.

As the name suggests, the Insert Tab is used to add or insert elements into your worksheets. Some of these elements are built into Excel such as charts; other elements are inserted from outside the program such as pictures, for example, inserting your company logo.

The Page Layout Tab contains options for controlling the appearance of your worksheets as a whole. Here, you’ll find settings relating to margins, orientation, size of paper and the area of the worksheet to be printed. You will usually go to the page layout Tab before printing worksheets.

The Formulas Tab contains commands for dealing with the most powerful aspect of Excel: formulas and functions. Here you can insert functions, track down errors in formulas and control the way in which Excel deals with formulas and carries out its calculations.

In the Data Tab you will find commands for importing data into Excel from such sources as databases; sorting information and also filtering (in other words finding data which matches certain criteria).

Here you’ll also find advanced tools for validating data, consolidation, performing “What if?” analysis. Also, in the outline section, you will find commands for assigning different levels to different parts of the worksheet. Excel’s outlining commands make large worksheet easier to navigate and to manage.

The principal theme of the Review Tab is checking and protection. It is here that you will find Excel’s spell-checker, commands enabling users to add comments to a worksheet and options for protecting both worksheets and workbooks.

The View Tab houses controls relating to the way in which your workbooks and worksheets are viewed on screen. It contains commands for zooming in and out on your work and for displaying several worksheets and workbooks simultaneously.

The Developer Tab contains options for automation. It is here that you’ll find tools for creating macros. Macros allow you to write Visual Basic code which can automate almost every aspect of Microsoft Excel.

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