You install the new Excel, run it... and suddenly you're faced with a window totally different of what you're used to. Calm down, it's true that the interface have got a little different, but in its core it is almost the same thing.


Are you seeing a rounded button on top-left corner? It's called "Microsft Officce Button"(creative, huh?). He works like the "File" menu of the previous versions, allowing you to create new spreadsheets, save, print, close, and so on.

On its right side there is the Quick Access Toolbar. It has the "Save", "Undo" and "Redo" buttons as default, but you can add more buttons at your will.

Below, there is the Ribbon, which occupies the larger part. It is a mix of the old Menu bars and Toolbars. It may look weird at first, but when you get used to it, it is really handy. When we let the mouse pointer at one button, the description that appears is far way better than in the older versions.

You may be wondering "Where is the Help menu?" - now it is a blue button, at the upper right side.

If you really haven't liked this new interface, you may use this to make it look like before. But besides the initial difficulties, I would suggest you to keep trying and get used to this new interface, it seems like it came to stay.

In the next post I will talk about other new components of the Microsoft Excel 2007 visual interface.

"Planning on planning" your year? Then use one of our free 2009 calendar, to print or use on screen.
The first one is a single page calendar, showing only the days and months of the year. It is based on an Office Online calendar model.

Single page calendar (Excel) - Single page calendar (PDF)

The second one is what I use on a daily basis. It has space for writing down your appointments. Sundays are highlighted, for ease of visualization. Each month fits one page.

Months calendar (Excel) - Months calendar (PDF)

Tip: are you learning a new language? Before you print the calendar, translate it to that language. This way you can memorize some words while using the calendar. If you want it in portuguese, there is an already translated version.

The most recent Excel uses a different file format. Instead of the traditional .xls, now the extension is .xlsx(the other main Office's file formats also have the 'x' in their end now, like .docx and .pptx). The problem is that these files are not supported by Excel 2003... I mean, it wasn't. Microsoft published a tool that lets us open the Office 2007's files with Office 2003. You just need to install the FileFormatConverter and you will be able to open any file of Excel 2007 with Excel 2003.

If you received a .xlsx file from a friend, you can also ask him to save the spreadsheet in the .xls format(go to the Microsoft Office button/Save As/Excel 97-2003 Workbook), which is faster than downloading the FileFormatConverter's 27 MBytes.

About the site

You can count on this blog to discover the mysteries of the new Excel, included in the MS Office 2007 package. Twice a week(at least) tips will be published, for old and new Excel users. The focus here is to give useful tips, with practical use, although eventually some more conceptual tips will be important to really learn, and not just memorize.

This blog came up when the author identified the difficulties that people had, to adapt themselves to new Excel. Once the author likes and constantly uses the Excel's tools, nothing more natural than share this knowledge with other people. If you have some suggestions or critics to do, don't hesitate in contact us.
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