Microsoft Office

Understanding Excel’s Files 8
FIGURE 8.8
The Compatibility Checker dialog box informs you of potential incompatibilities.
Closing workbooks
After you’re finished with a workbook, you should close it to free the memory that it uses. You can close a
workbook by using any of the following methods:
n Choose Office ➪ Close.
n Click the Close button (the X) in the workbook’s title bar.
n Double-click the Excel icon on the left side of the workbook’s title bar.
n Press the Ctrl+F4 shortcut key.
n Press the Ctrl+W shortcut key.
If you’ve made any changes to your workbook since it was last saved, Excel asks whether you want to save
the changes to the workbook before closing it.
Safeguarding your work
Nothing is worse than spending hours creating a complicated Excel workbook only to have it destroyed by
a power failure, a hard-drive crash, or even human error. Fortunately, protecting yourself from these disasters
is not a difficult task.
Earlier in the chapter, I discussed the AutoRecover feature that makes Excel save a backup copy of your
workbook at regular intervals (see “Using AutoRecover”). I also mentioned the Always Create Backup
option in the General Options dialog box. These are good ideas, but they certainly aren’t the only backup
protection you should use. If a file is truly important, you need to take extra steps to ensure its safety. The
following backup options help ensure the safety of individual files:
n
n
Keep a backup copy of the file on the same drive. Essentially what happens when you select
the Always Create A Backup option when you save a workbook file. Although this option offers
some protection if you make a mess of the worksheet, it won’t do you any good if the entire hard
drive crashes.
Keep a backup copy on a different hard drive. Assumes, of course, that your system has more
than one hard drive. This option offers more protection than the preceding method, because the
likelihood that both hard drives will fail is remote. If the entire system is destroyed or stolen,
however, you’re out of luck.
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