of additional options you can select.
To get more of the Worksheet area displayed in the program window, you can minimize the Ribbon so that only its tabs are displayed. (In fact, this Tabs display option is the default setting for Excel 2016 running on a touchscreen device, such as the Microsoft Surface tablet.)
You can minimize the Ribbon by doing any of the following:
✔ Click the Collapse the Ribbon button (the button with the caret symbol in the lower-right corner of the Excel Ribbon).
✔ Double-click a Ribbon tab.
✔ Press Ctrl+F1.
✔ Click the Shows Tabs item on the Ribbon Display Options button’s drop-down menu.
When you work in Excel with the Ribbon minimized, the Ribbon expands each time you select one of its tabs to show its command buttons, but that tab stays open only until you select one of its command buttons. The moment you select a command button, Excel immediately minimizes the Ribbon again so that only the tabs display.
Note, however, that when Excel expands a tab on the collapsed Ribbon, the Ribbon tab overlaps the top of the worksheet, obscuring the header with the column letters as well as the first couple of rows of the worksheet itself. This setup can make it a little harder to work when the Ribbon commands you’re selecting pertain to data in these first rows of the worksheet. For example, if you’re centering a title entered in cell A1 across several columns to the right with the Merge & Center command button on the Home tab, you can’t see the result of selecting the button until you once again minimize the Ribbon by selecting a visible cell in the worksheet. If you then decide you don’t like the results or want to further refine the title’s formatting, you need to redisplay the Home tab of the Ribbon once again, which obscures the cells in the top two rows all over again! (The workaround for this is to do most of your formatting with the commands on the mini-bar that appears when you right-click a cell selection so that you don’t have to open the minimized Ribbon at all. See the section on formatting cells with the mini-bar in Book II, Chapter 2 for details.)
Keeping tabs on the Excel Ribbon
The very first time you launch Excel 2016 and open a new workbook, the Ribbon contains the following seven tabs, proceeding from left to right:
✔ Home: Use this tab when creating, formatting, and editing a spreadsheet. This tab is arranged into the Clipboard, Font, Alignment, Number, Styles, Cells, and Editing groups.
✔ Insert: Use this tab when adding particular elements (including graphics, pivot tables, charts, hyperlinks, and headers and footers) to a spreadsheet. This tab is arranged into the Tables, Illustrations, Apps, Charts, Reports, Sparklines, Filter, Links, Text, and Symbol groups.
✔ Page Layout: Use this tab when preparing a spreadsheet for printing or reordering graphics on the sheet. This tab is arranged into the Themes, Page Setup, Scale to Fit, Sheet Options, and Arrange groups.
✔ Formulas: Use this tab when adding formulas and functions to a spreadsheet or checking a worksheet for formula errors. This tab is arranged into the Function Library, Defined Names, Formula Auditing, and Calculation groups. Note that this tab also contains a Solutions group when you activate certain add-in programs, such as Conditional Sum and Euro Currency Tools – see Book I, Chapter 2 for more on Excel add-ins.
✔ Data: Use this tab when importing, querying, outlining, and subtotaling the data placed into a worksheet’s data list. This tab is arranged into the Get External Data, Connections, Sort & Filter, Data Tools, and Outline groups. Note that this tab also contains an Analysis group if you activate add-ins, such as the Analysis Toolpak and Solver Add-In – see Book I, Chapter 2 for more on Excel add-ins.
✔ Review: Use this tab when proofing, protecting, and marking up a spreadsheet for review by others. This tab is arranged into the Proofing, Language, Comments, and Changes groups. Note that this tab also contains an Ink group with a sole Start Inking button if you’re running Excel on a Windows tablet or smartphone or on a laptop or desktop computer that’s equipped with some sort of electronic input tablet.
✔ View: Use this tab when changing the display of the Worksheet area and the data it contains. This tab is arranged into the Workbook Views, Show, Zoom, Window, and Macros groups.
Although these seven tabs are the standard ones on the Ribbon, they are not the only tabs that can appear in this area. Excel displays contextual tools with their own tab or tabs as long as you’re working on a particular object selected in the worksheet, such as a graphic image you’ve added or a chart or pivot table you’ve created. The name of the contextual tools for the selected object appears immediately above the tab or tabs associated with the tools.
The moment you deselect the object (usually by clicking somewhere on the sheet outside of its boundaries), the contextual tool for that object and all of its tabs immediately disappears from the Ribbon, leaving only the regular tabs – Home, Insert, Page Layout, Formulas, Data, Review, and View – displayed.
Adding the Developer tab to the Ribbon
If you do a lot of work with macros (see Book VIII, Chapter 1) and XML files in Excel, you should add the Developer tab to the Ribbon. This tab contains all the command buttons normally needed to create, play, and edit macros as well as to import and map XML files. To add the Developer tab to the Excel Ribbon, follow these steps:
1. Click the File menu button followed by the Options item in the Backstage view (Alt+FT).
The Excel Options dialog box opens in the worksheet view.
2. Select the Customize Ribbon option in the Excel Options dialog box and then click the Developer check box under Main Tabs in the Customize the Ribbon list box on the right. Click OK to finish.
Selecting with mouse and keyboard
Because Excel 2016 runs on many different types of devices, the most efficient means of selecting Ribbon commands depends not only on the device on which you’re running the program, but on the way that device is equipped as well.
For example, when I use Excel 2016 on my Microsoft 3 Surface tablet with its touch cover (equipped with both keyboard and touchpad) connected, I select commands from the Excel Ribbon more or less the same way I do when running Excel on my Windows desktop computer equipped with a standalone physical keyboard and mouse or on my Windows 10 laptop computer with its built-in physical keyboard and track pad.
However, when I run Excel 2016 on my Surface 3 tablet when the touch cover is not connected, I’m limited to selecting Ribbon commands directly on the touchscreen with my finger or stylus.
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