Microsoft Office

Part I
Getting Started with Excel
TIP
Most people prefer to do most of their work with maximized workbook windows, which
enables you to see more cells and eliminates the distraction of other workbook windows getting
in the way. At times, however, viewing multiple windows is preferred. For example, displaying two windows
is more efficient if you need to compare information in two workbooks or if you need to copy data
from one workbook to another.
When you maximize one window, all the other windows are maximized, too (even though you don’t see
them). Therefore, if the active window is maximized and you activate a different window, the new active
window is also maximized.
TIP
You also can display a single workbook in more than one window. For example, if you have a
workbook with two worksheets, you may want to display each worksheet in a separate window
in order to compare the two sheets. All the window-manipulation procedures described previously still
apply. Choose View ➪ Window ➪ New Window to open an additional window in the active workbook.
Closing windows
If you have multiple windows open, you may want to close those windows that you no longer need. Excel
offers several ways to close the active window:
n
n
Choose Office ➪ Close.
Click the Close button (the X icon) on the workbook window’s title bar. If the workbook window
is maximized, its title bar is not visible, so its Close button appears directly below Excel’s Close
button.
n Press Ctrl+W.
When you close a workbook window, Excel checks whether you have made any changes since the last time
you saved the file. If not, the window closes without a prompt from Excel. If you’ve made any changes,
Excel prompts you to save the file before it closes the window.
Activating a worksheet
At any given time, one workbook is the active workbook, and one sheet is the active sheet in the active
workbook. To activate a different sheet, just click its sheet tab, located at the bottom of the workbook window.
You also can use the following shortcut keys to activate a different sheet:
n Ctrl+PgUp: Activates the previous sheet, if one exists
n Ctrl+PgDn: Activates the next sheet, if one exists
If your workbook has many sheets, all its tabs may not be visible. Use the tab-scrolling controls (see Figure
4.3) to scroll the sheet tabs. The sheet tabs share space with the worksheet’s horizontal scroll bar. You also
can drag the tab split control to display more or fewer tabs. Dragging the tab split control simultaneously
changes the number of tabs and the size of the horizontal scroll bar.
TIP
When you right-click any of the tab-scrolling controls, Excel displays a list of all sheets in the
workbook. You can quickly activate a sheet by selecting it from the list.
56