Office 2008 for Mac All-in-One For Dummies®

Chapter III.1. Working Every Day in Excel

In This Chapter

• Getting started with a ledger sheet

• Looking into a variety of file formats

• Working with workbooks

• Altering Page Setup with the Formatting Palette

• Using Excel's different sheet types

Excel 2008 has an entirely new kind of worksheet — a ledger sheet — which makes using spreadsheets fill-in-the-blank simple. Ledger sheets allow you to successfully accomplish every day tasks, such as budgeting, keeping track of your checkbook balance, tracking vehicle maintenance, recording stock portfolios, drafting expense reports, and more. In this chapter, we show you how you can use ledger sheets efficiently.

After you get your feet wet with ledger sheets, we talk about opening and saving Excel specialty file formats, and how to recover if Excel or Mac OS X crashes. Then, we reveal Excel's new interface, and how to use the Formatting Palette to alter print setup and control Page Layout View. Along the way, we explain how to customize keyboard shortcuts in Excel. Finally, we explain how to work with different sheet types and reveal Excel's special Project Gallery.

This minibook covers features unique to Excel. We talk about general Microsoft Office features — such as opening and saving files, using Project Gallery, and working with common interface components, including the new Elements Gallery, Toolbox, and palettes — in Book I.

Introducing Ledger Sheets

Ledger sheets are designed specifically to help you figure out Excel's interface and features ...