Learn Excel 2011 for Mac

Four Ways to Control Excel

To control Excel, you give commands. For example, when you need a new workbook, you give the command to create a new workbook.

In Excel 2011 (see Figure 1–1), you can give commands in the four main ways we noted:

• Menus. Like most Mac applications, Excel provides a set of menus that appear on the Mac OS X menu bar when Excel is the active application. To give a command, you click the menu, and then click the command.
• Ribbon. The Ribbon is the new control strip introduced in Excel 2011. To give a command, you click its button or control.
• Toolbars. Excel includes the Standard toolbar and the Formatting toolbar. The Standard toolbar appears across the top of the Excel window by default, as in Figure 1.1. To give a command, ...