Each Excel document is referred to as a workbook and each workbook can contain up to 255 worksheets. To activate a particular worksheet, click on one of the tabs displayed at the bottom of your screen.
To the left of the worksheet tabs will find four navigation icons. These are useful where you have a workbook that either contains lots of worksheets or has worksheets with very long names. The very first icon makes the name of the first worksheet visible; the very last icon makes the name of the last worksheet visible. The left pointing arrow reveals the name of the previous worksheet and of course the right pointing arrow reveals the name of the next worksheet. These icons do not actually activate a worksheet; they simply make its name tab visible. To activate a worksheet, you still have to click on that particular tab.
Worksheets can also be activated from the keyboard. To activate the next worksheet to the right, hold down the Control key and press Page Down. This moves you forward through your worksheets are naturally holding the Control key and pressing Page Up moves you back to the left.
Once you've navigated to a particular worksheet, you will need to go to a particular cell or a particular section of that worksheet. Naturally, you can use the scrollbars to make different parts of the worksheet visible. You can also move around the worksheet using the arrows on your keyboard: down, right, up and left.
Excel also contains useful keyboard shortcuts for moving to the edges of a given body of data. To get to the right-most cell of the current range, hold down Control and press the right arrow and of course to get to the bottom cell, hold down Control and press the down arrow.
It is also possible to do exactly the same thing with the mouse. Position the cursor on one of the edges of the selection rectangle (that bold highlight which is displayed around the currently active cell) and then you simply double-click. Double-clicking on the right hand edge of the selection rectangle takes you to the extreme right of the current range. Double-clicking on the bottom edge jumps to the bottom of the range, and so forth.
There are two final navigation keyboard shortcuts which should be mentioned: Control-Home and Control-End. Hold down the Control key and press End to move to the bottom right of the current range. Hold down Control and press Home to move to the top left of the current range.
As well as navigating through worksheets, all users of Excel make frequent use of the Ribbon. Excel offers a series of useful keyboard shortcuts when working with the Ribbon.
To access the ribbon keyboard shortcuts simply press the Alt key once on your keyboard. A series of letters and numbers is then displayed which represent the shortcuts that you should type to activate that part of the Ribbon. For example, "W" is the shortcut for accessing the View Tab.
When you press "W", the View Tab is activated and another series of badges is displayed on each of the commands within the View Tab. For example, the "Arrange All" command uses "A" as its keyboard shortcut, so simply typing "A" is equivalent to clicking the Arrange All button.
Once you've typed a letter to execute a command, the Ribbon loses focus and the shortcut badges disappear. To access Ribbon commands via the keyboard once more, simply press the Alt Key and the badges will reappear. This means that you never have to worry about learning keyboard shortcuts. All you have to remember is to press the Alt key on your keyboard and Excel will prompt you from there. - 15485
To the left of the worksheet tabs will find four navigation icons. These are useful where you have a workbook that either contains lots of worksheets or has worksheets with very long names. The very first icon makes the name of the first worksheet visible; the very last icon makes the name of the last worksheet visible. The left pointing arrow reveals the name of the previous worksheet and of course the right pointing arrow reveals the name of the next worksheet. These icons do not actually activate a worksheet; they simply make its name tab visible. To activate a worksheet, you still have to click on that particular tab.
Worksheets can also be activated from the keyboard. To activate the next worksheet to the right, hold down the Control key and press Page Down. This moves you forward through your worksheets are naturally holding the Control key and pressing Page Up moves you back to the left.
Once you've navigated to a particular worksheet, you will need to go to a particular cell or a particular section of that worksheet. Naturally, you can use the scrollbars to make different parts of the worksheet visible. You can also move around the worksheet using the arrows on your keyboard: down, right, up and left.
Excel also contains useful keyboard shortcuts for moving to the edges of a given body of data. To get to the right-most cell of the current range, hold down Control and press the right arrow and of course to get to the bottom cell, hold down Control and press the down arrow.
It is also possible to do exactly the same thing with the mouse. Position the cursor on one of the edges of the selection rectangle (that bold highlight which is displayed around the currently active cell) and then you simply double-click. Double-clicking on the right hand edge of the selection rectangle takes you to the extreme right of the current range. Double-clicking on the bottom edge jumps to the bottom of the range, and so forth.
There are two final navigation keyboard shortcuts which should be mentioned: Control-Home and Control-End. Hold down the Control key and press End to move to the bottom right of the current range. Hold down Control and press Home to move to the top left of the current range.
As well as navigating through worksheets, all users of Excel make frequent use of the Ribbon. Excel offers a series of useful keyboard shortcuts when working with the Ribbon.
To access the ribbon keyboard shortcuts simply press the Alt key once on your keyboard. A series of letters and numbers is then displayed which represent the shortcuts that you should type to activate that part of the Ribbon. For example, "W" is the shortcut for accessing the View Tab.
When you press "W", the View Tab is activated and another series of badges is displayed on each of the commands within the View Tab. For example, the "Arrange All" command uses "A" as its keyboard shortcut, so simply typing "A" is equivalent to clicking the Arrange All button.
Once you've typed a letter to execute a command, the Ribbon loses focus and the shortcut badges disappear. To access Ribbon commands via the keyboard once more, simply press the Alt Key and the badges will reappear. This means that you never have to worry about learning keyboard shortcuts. All you have to remember is to press the Alt key on your keyboard and Excel will prompt you from there. - 15485
About the Author:
Author is a developer and trainer with Macresource Computer Solutions, a UK IT training company offering Microsoft Excel 2007 training courses in London and throughout the UK.
