Creating file with excel

Explore subscription benefits, browse training courses, learn how to secure your device, and more.

Communities help you ask and answer questions, give feedback, and hear from experts with rich knowledge.

Find solutions to common problems or get help from a support agent.

Starting a Workbook

Figure 1-1. Excel’s welcome page lets you create a new, blank worksheet or a ready-made workbook from a template. For now, click the “Blank workbook” picture to create a new spreadsheet with no formatting or data.

Note

Workbook is Excel lingo for “spreadsheet.” Excel uses this term to emphasize the fact that a single workbook can contain multiple worksheets, each with its own grid of data. You’ll learn about this feature in Chapter 4, but for now, each workbook you create will have just a single worksheet of information.

Adding Information to a Worksheet

Figure 1-2. The largest part of the Excel window is the worksheet grid, where you type in your information.

• The grid divides your worksheet into rows and columns. Excel names columns using letters (A, B, C…), and labels rows using numbers (1, 2, 3…).

• The smallest unit in your worksheet is the cell. Excel uniquely identifies each cell by column letter and row number. For example, C6 is the address of a cell in column C (the third column) and row 6 (the sixth row). Figure 1-3 shows this cell, which looks like a rectangular box. Incidentally, an Excel cell can hold approximately 32,000 characters.

• A worksheet can span an eye-popping 16,000 columns and 1 million rows. In the unlikely case that you want to go beyond those limits—say, if you’re tracking blades of grass on the White House lawn—you’ll need to create a new worksheet. Every spreadsheet file can hold a virtually unlimited number of worksheets, as you’ll learn in Chapter 4.

• When you enter information, enter it one cell at a time. However, you don’t have to follow any set order. For example, you can start by typing information into cell A40 without worrying about filling any data in the cells that appear in the earlier rows.

Note

Obviously, once you go beyond 26 columns, you run out of letters. Excel handles this by doubling up (and then tripling up) letters. For example, after column Z is column AA, then AB, then AC, all the way to AZ and then BA, BB, BC—you get the picture. And if you create a ridiculously large worksheet, you’ll find that column ZZ is followed by AAA, AAB, AAC, and so on.

Figure 1-3. In this spreadsheet, the active cell is C6. You can recognize an active (or current) cell by its heavy black border. You’ll also notice that Excel highlights the corresponding column letter (C) and row number (6) at the edges of the worksheet. Just above the worksheet, on the left side of the window, the formula bar gives you the active cell’s address.

Excel lets you arrange information in whatever way you like. There’s nothing to stop you from scattering numbers left and right, across as many cells as you want. However, one of the most common (and most useful) ways to arrange information is in a table, with headings for each column.

It’s important to remember that with even the simplest worksheet, the decisions you make about what’s going to go in each column can have a big effect on how easy it is to manipulate your information. For example, in a worksheet that stores a mailing list, you could have two columns: one for names and another for addresses. But if you create more than two columns, your life will probably be easier because you can separate first names from street addresses from ZIP codes, and so on. Figure 1-4 shows the difference.

You can, of course, always add or remove columns. But you can avoid getting gray hairs by starting a worksheet with all the columns you think you’ll need.

The first step in creating a worksheet is to add your headings in the row of cells at the top of the sheet (row 1). Technically, you don’t need to start right in the first row, but unless you want to add more information before your table—like a title for the chart or today’s date—there’s no point in wasting space. Adding information is easy—just click the cell you want and start typing. When you finish, hit Tab to complete your entry and move to the cell to the right, or click Enter to head to the cell just underneath.

For a simple expense worksheet designed to keep a record of your most prudent and extravagant purchases, try the following three headings:

Right away, you face your first glitch: awkwardly crowded text. Figure 1-5 shows how to adjust the column width for proper breathing room.

You can now begin adding your data: Simply fill in the rows under the column titles. Each row in the expense worksheet represents a separate purchase. (If you’re familiar with databases, you can think of each row as a separate record.)

As Figure 1-6 shows, the first column is for dates, the second stores text, and the third holds numbers. Keep in mind that Excel doesn’t impose any rules on what you type, so you’re free to put text in the Price column. But if you don’t keep a consistent kind of data in each column, you won’t be able to easily analyze (or understand) your information later.

That’s it. You’ve now created a living, breathing worksheet. The next section explains how you can edit the data you just entered.

Every time you start typing in a cell, Excel erases any existing content in that cell. (You can also quickly remove the contents of a cell by moving to the cell and pressing Delete, which clears its contents.)

If you want to edit cell data instead of replacing it, you need to put the cell in edit mode, like this:

As you enter data, you may discover the Bigtime Excel Display Problem (known to aficionados as BEDP): Cells in adjacent columns can overlap one another. Figure 1-7 illustrates the problem. One way to fix BEDP is to manually resize the column, as shown in Figure 1-5. Another option is to turn on text wrapping so you can fit multiple lines of text in a single cell, as described on Alignment and Orientation.

Just above the worksheet grid but under the ribbon is an indispensable editing tool called the formula bar (Figure 1-8). It displays the address of the active cell (like A1) on the left edge, and it shows you the current cell’s contents.

You can use the formula bar to enter and edit data instead of editing directly in your worksheet. This is particularly useful when a cell contains a formula or a large amount of information. That’s because the formula bar gives you more work room than a typical cell. Just as with in-cell edits, you press Enter to confirm formula bar edits or Esc to cancel them. Or you can use the mouse: When you start typing in the formula bar, a checkmark and an “X” icon appear just to the left of the box where you’re typing. Click the checkmark to confirm your entry or “X” to roll it back.

Ordinarily, the formula bar is a single line. If you have a really long entry in a cell (like a paragraph’s worth of text), you need to scroll from one side to the other. However, there’s another option—you can resize the formula bar so that it fits more information, as shown in Figure 1-9.

Using the Ribbon

Everything you’ll ever want to do in Excel—from picking a fancy background color to pulling information out of a database—is packed into the ribbon. To accommodate all these buttons without becoming an over-stuffed turkey, the ribbon uses tabs. You start out with seven tabs. When you click one, you see a whole new collection of buttons (Figure 1-10).

The ribbon makes it easy to find features because Excel groups related features under the same tab. Even better, once you find the button you need, you can often find other, associated commands by looking at the other buttons in the tab. In other words, the ribbon isn’t just a convenient tool, it’s also a great way to explore Excel.

The ribbon is full of craftsman-like detail. For example, when you hover over a button, you don’t see a paltry two- or three-word description in a yellow rectangle. Instead, you see a friendly pop-up box with a mini-description of the feature and (often) a shortcut that lets you trigger the command from the keyboard. Another nice detail is the way you can jump from one tab to another at high velocity by positioning your mouse pointer over the ribbon and rolling the scroll wheel (if your mouse has a scroll wheel). And you’re sure to notice the way the ribbon rearranges its buttons when you change the size of the Excel window (see Figure 1-11).

Throughout this book, you’ll dig through the ribbon’s tabs to find important features. But before you start your journey, here’s a quick overview of what each tab provides.

Most people are happy to have the ribbon sit at the top of the Excel window, with all its buttons on hand. But serious number-crunchers demand maximum space for their data—they’d rather look at another row of numbers than a pumped-up toolbar. If this describes you, then you’ll be happy to find out that you can collapse the ribbon, which shrinks it down to a single row of tab titles, as shown in Figure 1-12. To collapse it, just double-click the current tab title. (Or click the tiny up-pointing icon in the top-right corner of the ribbon, right next to the help icon.)

Even if you collapse the ribbon, you can still use all its features. All you need to do is click a tab. For example, if you click Home, the Home tab pops open over your worksheet. As soon as you click the button you want in the Home tab (or click a cell in your worksheet), the ribbon collapses again. The same trick works if you trigger a command in the ribbon using the keyboard, as described in the next section.

If you use the ribbon only occasionally, or if you prefer to use keyboard shortcuts, it makes sense to collapse the ribbon. Even then, you can still use the ribbon commands—it just takes an extra click to open the tab. On the other hand, if you make frequent trips to the ribbon or you’re learning about Excel and like to browse the ribbon to see what features are available, don’t bother collapsing it. The two or three spreadsheet rows you’ll lose are well worth it.

If you’re an unredeemed keyboard lover, you’ll be happy to hear that you can trigger ribbon commands with the keyboard. The trick is using keyboard accelerators, a series of keystrokes that starts with the Alt key (the same key you used to use to get to a menu). When you use a keyboard accelerator, you don’t hold down all the keys at the same time. (As you’ll soon see, some of these keystrokes contain so many letters that you’d be playing Finger Twister if you tried.) Instead, you hit the keys one after the other.

The trick to keyboard accelerators is understanding that once you hit the Alt key, there are two things you do, in this order:

Before you can trigger a specific command, you must select the correct tab (even if it’s already selected). Every accelerator requires at least two key presses after you hit the Alt key. You need to press even more keys to dig through submenus.

By now, this whole process probably seems hopelessly impractical. Are you really expected to memorize dozens of accelerator key combinations?

Fortunately, Excel is ready to help you out with a feature called KeyTips. Here’s how it works: When you press Alt, letters magically appear over every tab in the ribbon. Once you hit the corresponding key to pick a tab, letters appear over every button in that tab (Figure 1-13). Once again, you press the corresponding key to trigger the command (Figure 1-14).

Sometimes, a command might have two letters, in which case you need to press both keys, one after the other. (For example, the Find & Select button on the Home tab has the letters FD. To trigger it, press Alt, then H, then F, and then D.)

Excel gives you other shortcut keys that don’t use the ribbon. These are key combinations that start with the Ctrl key. For example, Ctrl+C copies highlighted text, and Ctrl+S saves your work. Usually, you find out about a shortcut key by hovering over a command with your mouse. For example, hover over the Paste button in the ribbon’s Home tab, and you see a tooltip that tells you its timesaving shortcut key, Ctrl+V. And if you worked with a previous version of Excel, you’ll find that Excel 2013 uses almost all the same shortcut keys.

Keen eyes will have noticed the tiny bit of screen real estate just above the ribbon. It holds a series of tiny icons, like the toolbars in older versions of Excel (Figure 1-16). This is the Quick Access toolbar (or QAT, to Excel nerds).

If the Quick Access toolbar were nothing but a specialized shortcut for three commands, it wouldn’t be worth the bother. But it has one other notable attribute: You can customize it. In other words, you can remove commands you don’t use and add your own favorites. The Appendix of this book (Creating Custom Functions) shows you how.

Microsoft has deliberately kept the Quick Access toolbar very small. It’s designed to provide a carefully controlled outlet for those customization urges. Even if you go wild stocking the Quick Access toolbar with your own commands, the rest of the ribbon remains unchanged. (And that means a co-worker or spouse can still use Excel, no matter how dramatically you change the QAT.)

Using the Status Bar

Figure 1-17. In the status bar, you can see the basic status text (which just says “Ready” in this example), the view buttons (useful as you prepare a spreadsheet for printing), and the zoom slider (which lets you enlarge or shrink the current worksheet).

• Ready means that Excel isn’t doing anything much at the moment, other than waiting to execute a command.

• Enter appears when you start typing a new value into a cell.

• Edit means you currently have the cell in edit mode, and pressing the left and right arrow keys moves through the data within a cell, instead of moving from cell to cell. You can place a cell in edit mode or take it out of edit mode by pressing F2.

Table 1-1. Status bar indicators

Figure 1-18. Every item that has a checkmark appears in the status bar when you need it. For example, if you choose Caps Lock, the text “Caps Lock” appears in the status bar whenever you hit the Caps Lock key. The text that appears on the right side of the list tells you the current value of the indicator. In this example, Caps Lock mode is currently off and the Cell Mode text says “Ready.”

Going Backstage

Figure 1-19. When you first switch to backstage view, Excel shows the Info page, which provides basic information about your workbook file, its size, when it was last edited, who edited it, and so on (see the column on the far right). The Info page also provides the gateway to three important features: document protection (Chapter 21), compatibility checking (page 31), and AutoRecover backups (page 38). To go to another section, click a different command in the column on the far left.

Tip

You don’t need to go to backstage view to create a new, blank spreadsheet. Instead, hit the shortcut key Ctrl+N while you’re in the worksheet grid. Excel will launch a new window, with a new, blank worksheet at the ready.

Figure 1-20. When you click New, you see a page resembling the welcome page that greets you when you start Excel. To create a new, empty workbook, click “Blank workbook.” Excel opens the workbook in a new window, so that it’s separate from your current workbook, which Excel leaves untouched.

• Work with files (create, open, close, and save them) with the help of the New, Open, Save, and Save As commands. You’ll spend the rest of this chapter learning the fastest and most effective ways to save and open Excel files.

• Print your work (Chapter 7) and email it to other people (Chapter 25) using the Print and Share commands.

• Prepare a workbook you want to share with others. For example, you can check its compatibility with older versions of Excel (Chapter 1) and lock your document to prevent other people from changing numbers (Chapter 24). You find these options under the Info command.

• Configure your Office account—that’s the email address and password you use to access Microsoft’s SkyDrive service for storing spreadsheets online (Introducing SkyDrive) or for your Office 365 account (if you’re a subscriber; see page xvii). To do this, click the Account command.

• Configure how Excel behaves. Once you’re in backstage view, click Options to launch the Excel Options window, an all-in-one place for configuring Excel.

Saving Files

Figure 1-21. The first time you save your spreadsheet, you need to choose where to put it. Usually, you’ll pick a location on your hard drive (click Computer in the Places list), but you can upload it to a corporate SharePoint service or to Microsoft’s SkyDrive for online sharing almost as easily.

• Computer. Choose this to store your spreadsheet somewhere on your computer’s hard drive. This is the most common option. When you click Computer, Excel lists the folders where you recently saved or opened files (see Figure 1-21, on the right). To save a file to one of these locations, select the folder. Or, click the big Browse button at the bottom to find a new location. Either way, Excel opens the familiar Save As window, where you type in a name for your file (Figure 1-22).

  

  Figure 1-22. Once you pick a location for your file, you need to give it a name. This window won’t surprise you, because it’s the same Save As window that puts in an appearance in almost every document-based Windows application.

• SkyDrive. When you set up Excel, you can supply the email address and password you use for Microsoft services like Hotmail, Messenger, and SkyDrive, Microsoft’s online file-storage system. Excel features some nifty SkyDrive integration features. For example, you can upload a spreadsheet straight to the Web by clicking your personalized SkyDrive item in the Places list, and then choosing one of your SkyDrive folders.

  Note

  The advantage of putting a file on SkyDrive is that you can open and edit it from another Excel-equipped computer, without needing to worry about copying or emailing the file. The other advantage is that other people can edit your file with the Excel Web App. You’ll learn more about SkyDrive and the Excel Web App in Chapter 23.

• SharePoint. If you’re running a computer on a company network, you may be able to store your work on a SharePoint server. Doing so not only lets you share your work with everyone else on your team, it lets you tap into SharePoint’s excellent workflow features. (For example, your organization could have a process set up where you save expense reports to a SharePoint server, and they’re automatically passed on to your boss for approval and then accounting for payment.) A SharePoint server won’t necessarily have the word “SharePoint” in its place name, but it will have the globe-and-server icon to let you know it’s a web location.

Tip

Saving a spreadsheet is an almost instantaneous operation, and you should get used to doing it regularly. After you make any significant change to a sheet, hit Ctrl+S to store the latest version of your data.

• Choose File→Save As and pick a location. Then, in the Save As window (Figure 1-22), click “Save as type” and then pick the format you want from the long drop-down list.

• Choose File→Export, and then click Change File Type. You’ll see a list of the 10 most popular formats. Click one to open a Save As window with that format selected. Or, if you don’t see the format you want, click the big Save As button underneath to open a Save As window, and then pick the format yourself from the “Save as type” drop-down list.

Modern versions of Excel, including Excel 2013, use the .xlsx file format (which means your saved spreadsheet will have a name like HotelSilverware.xlsx). Microsoft introduced this format in Excel 2007, and it comes with significant advantages:

For all these reasons, .xlsx is the format of choice for Excel 2013. However, Microsoft prefers to give people all the choices they could ever need (rather than make life really simple), and Excel file formats are no exception. In fact, the .xlsx file format actually comes in two additional flavors.

First, there’s the closely related .xlsm, which lets you store macro code with your spreadsheet data. If you add macros to a spreadsheet, Excel prompts you to use this file type when you save your work. (You’ll learn about macros in Chapter 29.)

Second, there’s the optimized .xlsb format, which is a specialized option that might be a bit faster when opening and saving gargantuan spreadsheets. The .xlsb format has the same automatic compression and error-resistance as .xlsx, but it doesn’t use XML. Instead, it stores information in raw binary form (good ol’ ones and zeros), which is speedier in some situations. To use the .xlsb format, choose File→Export, click Change File Type, and then choose “Binary Workbook (.xlsb)” from the drop-down list.

Most of the time, you don’t need to think about Excel’s file format. You can just create your spreadsheets, save them, and let Excel take care of the rest. The only time you need to stop and think twice is when you share your work with other, less fortunate people who have older versions of Excel, such as Excel 2003. You’ll learn how to deal with this challenge in the following sections.

As you just learned, Excel 2013 uses the same .xlsx file format as Excel 2010 and Excel 2007. That means that an Excel 2013 fan can exchange files with an Excel 2010 devotee, and there won’t be any technical problems.

However, a few issues can still trip you up when you share spreadsheets between different versions of Excel. For example, Excel 2013 introduces a few new formula functions, such as BASE (BASE() and DECIMAL(): Converting Numbers to Different Bases). If you write a calculation in Excel 2013 that uses BASE(), the calculation won’t work in Excel 2010. Instead of seeing the numeric result you want, your recipient will see an error code mixed in with the rest of the spreadsheet data.

To avoid this sort of problem, you need the help of an Excel tool called the Compatibility Checker. It scans your spreadsheet for features and formulas that will cause problems in Excel 2010 or Excel 2007.

To use the Compatibility Checker, follow these steps:

Once your work passes through the Compatibility Checker, you’re ready to save it. Because Excel 2013, Excel 2010, and Excel 2007 all share the same file format, you don’t need to perform any sort of conversion—just save your file normally. But if you want to share your spreadsheet with Excel 2003, follow the instructions in the next section.

Sharing your workbook with someone using Excel 2003 presents an additional consideration: Excel 2003 uses the older .xls format instead of the current-day .xlsx format.

There are two ways to resolve this problem:

As you already know, each version of Excel introduces a small set of new features. Older versions don’t support these features. The differences between Excel 2010 and Excel 2013 are small, but the differences between Excel 2003 and Excel 2013 are more significant.

Excel tries to help you out in two ways. First, whenever you save a file in .xls format, Excel automatically runs the Compatibility Checker to check for problems. Second, whenever you open a spreadsheet in the old .xls file format, Excel switches into compatibility mode. While the Compatibility Checker points out potential problems after the fact, compatibility mode is designed to prevent you from using unsupported features in the first place. For example, in compatibility mode you’ll face these restrictions:

In compatibility mode, these missing features aren’t anywhere to be found. In fact, compatibility mode is so seamless that you might not even notice its limitations. The only clear indication that you’re in Compatibility Mode appears at the title bar at the top of the Excel window. Instead of seeing something like CateringList.xlsx, you’ll see “CateringList.xls [Compatibility Mode].”

If you decide at some point that you’re ready to move into the modern world and convert your file to the .xlsx format favored by Excel 2013, you can use the trusty File→Save As command. However, there’s an even quicker shortcut. Just choose File→Info and click the Convert button. This saves an Excel 2013 version of your file with the same name but with the extension .xlsx, and reloads the file so you get out of compatibility mode. It’s up to you to delete your old .xls original if you don’t need it anymore.

Sometimes you want to save a copy of your spreadsheet so that people can read it even if they don’t have Excel (and even if they’re running a different operating system, like Linux or Apple’s OS X). One way to solve this problem is to save your spreadsheet as a PDF file. This gives you the best of both worlds—you keep all the rich formatting (for when you print your workbook), and you let people who don’t have Excel (and possibly don’t even have Windows) see your work. The disadvantage is that PDFs are for viewing only—there’s no way for you to open a PDF in Excel and start editing it.

To save your spreadsheet as a PDF, select File→Export, click Create PDF/XPS Document (in the “File Types” section), and then click the Create PDF/XPS button. Excel opens a modified version of the Save As window that has a few additional options (Figure 1-25).

The “Publish as PDF” window gives you some control over the quality of your printout using the “Optimize for” options. If you’re just saving a PDF copy so other people can view your workbook, choose “Minimum size (publishing online)” to cut down on the storage space required. On the other hand, if people reading your PDF might want to print it out, choose “Standard (publishing online and printing)” to save a slightly larger PDF that makes for a better printout.

You can switch on the “Open file after publishing” setting to tell Excel to open the PDF file in Adobe Reader (assuming you have it installed) after it saves the file. That way, you can check the result.

Finally, if you want to publish only a portion of your spreadsheet as a PDF file, click the Options button to open a window with even more settings. You can publish just a fixed number of pages, just selected cells, and so on. These options mirror the choices you see when you print a spreadsheet (Printing). You also see a few more cryptic options, most of which you can safely ignore (they’re intended for PDF nerds). One exception is the “Document properties” option—turn this off if you don’t want the PDF to keep track of certain information that identifies you, like your name. (Excel document properties are discussed in more detail on Document Properties.)

Occasionally, you might want to add confidential information to a spreadsheet—a list of the hotels from which you’ve stolen spoons, for example. If your computer is on a network, the solution may be as simple as storing your file in the correct, protected location. But if you’re afraid you might email the spreadsheet to the wrong people (say, executives at Four Seasons), or if you’re about to expose systematic accounting irregularities in your company’s year-end statements, you’ll be happy to know that Excel provides a tighter degree of security. It lets you password-protect your spreadsheets, which means that anyone who wants to open them has to know the password you set.

Excel actually has two layers of password protection you can apply to a spreadsheet:

To apply one or both of these restrictions to your spreadsheet, follow these steps:

If you use a password to restrict people from modifying the spreadsheet, the next time you open this file, Excel gives you the choice, shown in Figure 1-27 bottom, to open it in read-only mode (which requires no password) or to open it in full edit mode (in which case you’ll need to supply the “password to modify”).

The corollary to the edict “Save your data early and often” is the truism “Sometimes things fall apart quickly…before you even had a chance to back up.” Fortunately, Excel includes an invaluable safety net called AutoRecover.

AutoRecover periodically saves backup copies of your spreadsheet while you work. If you suffer a system crash, you can retrieve the last backup even if you never managed to save the file yourself. Of course, even the AutoRecover backup won’t necessarily have all the information you entered in your spreadsheet before the problem occurred. But if AutoRecover saves a backup every 10 minutes (the standard), at most you’ll lose 10 minutes’ worth of work.

If your computer does crash, when you get it running again, you can easily retrieve your last AutoRecover backup. In fact, the next time you launch Excel, it automatically checks the backup folder and, if it finds a backup, it adds a link named Show Recovered Files to Excel’s welcome page (Figure 1-28). Click that link, and Excel adds a panel named Document Recovery to the left side of the Excel window (Figure 1-29).

If your computer crashes mid-edit, the next time you open Excel you may see the same file listed twice in the Document Recovery window, as shown in Figure 1-29. The difference is in the status: “[Autosaved]” indicates the most recent backup Excel created, while “[Original]” means the last version of the file you saved (which is safely stored on your hard drive, right where you expect it).

To open a file in the Document Recovery window, just click it. You can also use a drop-down menu with additional options (Figure 1-29). If you find a file you want to keep permanently, make sure to save it. If you don’t, the next time you close Excel it asks if it should throw the backups away.

If you attempt to open a backup file that’s somehow been scrambled (technically known as corrupted), Excel attempts to repair it. You can choose Show Repairs to display a list of any changes Excel made to recover the file.

Opening Files

Note

When you open a file, Excel loads it into a new window. If you already have a workbook on the go, that workbook remains open in a separate Excel window.

Figure 1-31. To keep a spreadsheet on the Recent Documents list, click the thumbtack on the right. Excel moves your workbook to the top of the list and pins it in place. That means it won’t ever leave the list, no matter how many documents you open. If you decide to stop working with the file later on, just click the thumbtack again to release it. Pinning is a great way to keep your most important files at your fingertips.

Tip

Do you want to hide your recent editing work? You can remove any file from the recent document list by right-clicking it and choosing “Remove from list.” And if the clutter is keeping you from finding the workbooks you want, pin the important files, then right-click any file and choose “Clear unpinned workbooks.” This action removes every file that isn’t pinned down.

Tip

The Open window also lets you open several spreadsheets in one step, as long as they’re all in the same folder. To use this trick, hold down the Ctrl key and click to select each file. When you click Open, Excel puts each one in a separate window, just as if you’d opened them one after the other.

Excel can open many file types other than its native .xlsx format. To open files in another format, begin by choosing File→Open, and then pick a location. When the Open window appears, pick the type of format you want from the “Files of type” list at the bottom.

If you want to open a file but don’t know what format it’s in, try using the first option in the list, “All Files.” Once you choose a file, Excel scans the beginning of the file and informs you about the type of conversion it will attempt (based on the type of file Excel thinks it is).

Even something that seems as innocent as an Excel file can’t always be trusted. Protected view is an Excel security feature that aims to keep you safe. It opens potentially risky Excel files in a specially limited Excel window. You’ll know you’re in protected view because Excel doesn’t let you edit any of the data in the workbook, and it displays a message bar at the top of the window (Figure 1-32).

Excel automatically uses protected view when you download a spreadsheet from the Web or open it from your email inbox. This is actually a huge convenience, because Excel doesn’t need to hassle you with questions when you try to view the file (such as “Are you sure you want to open this file?”). Because Excel’s protected view has bullet-proof security, it’s a safe way to view even the most suspicious spreadsheet.

At this point, you’re probably wondering about the risks of rogue spreadsheets. Truthfully, they’re quite small. The most obvious danger is macro code: miniature programs stored in a spreadsheet file that perform Excel tasks. Poorly written or malicious macro code can tamper with your Excel settings, lock up the program, and even scramble your data. But before you panic, consider this: Excel macro viruses are very rare, and the .xlsx file format doesn’t even allow macro code. Instead, macro-containing files must be saved as .xlsm or .xlsb files.

The more subtle danger here is that crafty hackers could create corrupted Excel files that might exploit tiny security holes in the program. One of these files could scramble Excel’s brains in a dangerous way, possibly causing it to execute a scrap of malicious computer code that could do almost anything. Once again, this sort of attack is extremely rare. It might not even be possible with the up-to-date .xlsx file format. But protected view completely removes any chance of an attack, which helps corporate bigwigs sleep at night.

The Open window harbors a few tricks. To see these hidden secrets, first select the file you want to use (by clicking it once, not twice), and then click the drop-down arrow on the right-side of the Open button. A menu with several options appears, as shown in Figure 1-33.

Here’s what these different choices do:

As you open multiple spreadsheets, Excel creates a new window for each one. Although this helps keep your work separated, it can cause a bit of clutter and make it harder to track down the window you really want. Fortunately, Excel provides a few shortcuts that are indispensable when dealing with several spreadsheets at a time: