Excel 2016 All-in-One For Dummies. Harvey Greg

Mode: This button indicates the current state of the Excel program (READY, ENTER, EDIT, and so on).

      ✔ AutoCalculate: This indicator displays the AVERAGE, COUNT, and SUM of all the numerical entries in the current cell selection.

      ✔ Layout: This selector enables you to select between three layouts for the Worksheet area: Normal, the default view that shows only the worksheet cells with the column and row headings; Page Layout view, which adds rulers and page margins and shows page breaks for the worksheet; and Page Break Preview, which enables you to adjust the paging of a report.

      ✔ Zoom: The Zoom slider enables you to zoom in and out on the cells in the Worksheet area by dragging the slider to the right or left, respectively.

       When you begin recording your first macro in Excel 2016 (see Book VIII, Chapter 1 for details), a Stop Recording button (with a square icon) appears on the status bar to the immediate right of the Mode indicator. When you finish recording this macro, the Stop Recording button on the status bar immediately changes into a Record Macro button (using an icon with a dot on a tiny worksheet) that you can thereafter use to record any or all your future macros.

      Getting Help

      In Excel 2016, help is always available to you in two forms:

      ✔ Tell Me help feature that not only shows you the command sequence for the help topic you enter but at times actually initiates and completes the command sequence for you

      ✔ Online Help that contains various help topics that explain Excel’s many features

Show-and-tell help with the Tell Me feature

      Excel 2016’s new Tell Me help feature must be from Missouri because it doesn’t just tell you what to do; it actually shows you by performing the task for you. This handy little feature is available from the Tell Me What You Want to Do text box located to the immediate right of the last command tab above the Excel ribbon. As you enter a help topic into this text box, Excel displays a list of related Excel commands in a drop-down list.

      When you then select one of the items displayed on this list, Excel either selects the associated Ribbon command (no matter which Ribbon tab is currently selected) and waits for you to make a selection from the command’s submenu or, in some case, just goes ahead and completes the associated command sequence for you.

      For example, if you type print into the Tell Me What You Want to Do text box, Excel displays a list with the following items:

      ✔ Quick Print

      ✔ Preview and Print

      ✔ Print Preview and Print

      ✔ Print Guidelines

      ✔ Print Area

      ✔ See Help for “Print”

      If you select Quick Print at the top of the list, Excel immediately sends the current worksheet to the printer. If, however, you select Preview and Print next on the list, a submenu with Print Preview and Print, Quick Print, and Print Preview Full Screen appears. If you select the Print Preview and Print item, Excel displays a preview of the printout on the Print Screen in the Backstage view that you can print. If you select the Quick Print item, the program sends the worksheet directly to the printer. But if you select the Print Preview Full Screen item, Excel replaces the Worksheet view with a full screen print preview page from which you can print the worksheet. (See Chapter 5 for complete details on previewing and printing your worksheets.)

      On the other hand, if you type underline in the Tell Me What You Want to Do text box, Excel displays two items: Underline and See Help for “Underline.” If you then select the Underline item, Excel goes ahead and assigns the underlining font attribute to whatever is in the cell that’s current in the worksheet.

       If you would rather learn how to complete a task in Excel rather than have the program do it for you, select the See Help for “xyz” item at the end of the list below the Tell Me What You Want to Do text box. This opens an Excel Help window with loads of information about using the commands to accomplish that task (as described in the very next section).

Using the Excel online help

Excel 2016 offers extensive online help that you can make use of anytime while using the program. To display the Excel Help window, you press function key F1. When you do, an Excel 2016 Help window similar to the one shown in Figure 1-7 appears.

       Figure 1-7: The Excel 2016 Help window with help topics for on printing worksheets.

       On a device without any access to the function keys, you can display the online Excel 2016 Help window by typing help into the Tell Me What You Want to Do text box and then tapping the Get Help on “help” option in the drop-down list.

      This window contains a search text box with a Search button to the right (with the spyglass icon) below a group of command buttons (Back, Next, Home, Print, and Increase Font). To display a list of related help topics in the Help window, type a keyword or name of a category (such as printing, formulas, and so on) and then click the Search button or press Enter. The Excel 2016 Help window then displays a list of help topics for that category. To display detailed information about a particular help topic in this list, click its link.

      To print the contents of the help topic that you select, click the Print button (the one with the Printer icon) at the top of the Excel Help window. To return to the opening Excel Help screen, click the Home button. To return to the previous Help screen after reviewing several links in a row, click the Back button (the one with arrow pointing left).

      Launching and Quitting Excel

      Excel 2016 runs under both the older Windows 7 and 8 as well as the new Windows 10 operating systems. Although the basic procedure for launching Excel 2016 in all three versions of the Windows operating system is pretty much the same, due to the variations to the Windows desktop, you should consult the Excel startup sequence for your particular version of Windows, which I outline in the following sections.

Starting Excel from the Windows 10 Start menu

      Windows 10 brings back the good old Start menu that many of you remember from much earlier Windows versions. The Windows 10 Start menu combines the straight up menu from earlier days with the tile icons so prominent in Windows 8. To open this menu to launch Excel 2016, click the Windows icon on the taskbar or press the Windows key on your keyboard.

Then, click the All Apps button under the list of the Most Used applications in the menu and scroll down to Microsoft Office 2016 under the E’s in the list. Select the Expand button (with the caret pointing downward) to display your Office applications where you click Excel 2016, as shown in Figure 1-8.

       Figure 1-8: Launching Excel 2016 from the Windows 10 Start screen.

       You can pin an Excel 2016 button to the Windows 10 Start menu and/or its taskbar so that you can launch Excel simply by selecting this button. To pin a button, right-click the Excel 2016 menu item in the Start menu and then select the Pin to Start and/or Pin to Taskbar items in the displayed context menu.

Starting Excel from the Windows 10 Ask Me Anything text box

      Instead of opening the Windows 10 Start menu and locating the Excel 2016 item there, you can launch the program by selecting this item from the Ask Me Anything text box. Simply type excel into this text box that appears to the immediate