November RLCC Computer Classes include Excel 2010

The Regional Library Computer Center November computer classes schedule is now available, and registration is open to staff and the public. This month, we will offer multiple basics classes and Microsoft Excel 2010. To register for the classes, you may do so online, drop by the Computer Commons, or call (205) 226-3681.

Microsoft Excel 2010 is a spreadsheet software in the new Microsoft 2010 Office Suite. Excel allows you to store, manipulate and analyze data in organized workbooks for home and business tasks. You can use Excel to keep up with inventory, budgets, bookkeeping, contact lists, etc. To understand the basics of Excel, you might want to become familiarized with some of its features.

Components of the Excel Window

The tabbed Ribbon system was introduced in Excel 2007 to replace traditional menus. It contains all of the commands you'll need in order to do common tasks. There are multiple tabs, each with several groups of commands. Some groups have an arrow in the bottom-right corner that you can click to see even more commands.

•  File Tab: Opens Backstage view, which displays a menu of commonly used file-management commands, such as Open, Save, Save As, and Print.
• Quick Access Toolbar: Contains buttons for frequently used commands. By default, Save, Undo, and Repeat/Redo are available. You can customize the toolbar to include additional commands.
• Ribbon Tabs: Contain Excel’s primary tools and commands, which are organized in logical groups and divided among the tabs. The main tabs are File, Home, Insert, Page Layout, References, Mailings, Review, and View.
• Ribbon Groups: Further organize related tools and commands. For example, tools and menus for changing text formats are arranged together in the Font group.
• Title Bar: Displays the name of the current document.
• Document area: Displays the text graphics that you type, edit, or insert. The flashing vertical line in the document area is called the insertion point, and it indicates where text will appear as you type.
• Status Bar: Contains the page number, word count, View commands, and document Zoom.
• Scrollbars: Used to view parts of the document that doesn’t currently fit in the window. You can scroll vertically and horizontally.
• Help: Pressing your F1 key will bring up the Help function for Window-based programs. Excel 2010 offers relevant results with articles from different sources online.

The Ribbon

Becoming familiar with the Ribbon is a great way to help understand the changes between Microsoft 2003 to Microsoft 2010.  The ribbon holds all of the information in previous versions of Microsoft Office in a more visual stream line manner through a series of tabs that include an immense variety of program features. The Ribbon contains multiple tabs, each with several groups of commands. You can add your own tabs that contain your favorite commands.

• Home Tab-This is the most used tab; it incorporates all text and cell formatting features such as font and paragraph changes.  The Home Tab also includes basic spreadsheet formatting elements such as text wrap, merging cells and cell style.
• Insert Tab-This tab allows you to insert a variety of items into a document from pictures, clip art, and headers and footers.
• Page Layout Tab-This tab has commands to adjust page such as margins, orientation and themes
• Formulas Tab-This tab has commands to use when creating Formulas.  This tab holds an immense function library which can assist when creating any formula or function in your spreadsheet.
• Data Tab-This tab allows you to modifying worksheets with large amounts of data by sorting and filtering as well as analyzing and grouping data.
• Review Tab-This tab allows you to correct spelling and grammar issues as well as set up security protections.  It also provides the track changes and notes feature providing the ability to make notes and change someone’s document.
• View Tab-This tab allows you to change the view of your document including freezing or splitting panes, viewing gridlines and hide cells.