Customizing The Quick Access Toolbar I

The quick access toolbar is a bar that can be customized to display frequently used features so that they can be accessed effortlessly. Left click once on any of the features in the Quick access toolbar to access them.

To customize, left click/right click once on the Customize Quick access toolbar button shown below.

A menu shows up as shown below, a mark  appears at the left of the tool(s) currently in the Quick Access Toolbar.

Left Click once on any of the desired tools in the menu, it is automatically added to the Quick Access toolbar and a mark appears at the left of the toolbar(s).

To remove any of the tools in the Quick access toolbar, left click/right click once on the quick access toolbar button as shown below.

A menu shows up as shown below

Left click once on any of the tools that you want removed from the quick access toolbar. It is automatically removed from the Quick access toolbar and the mark at the left of the Feature disappears.

To add more commands that are not in the menu, click on “More commands” in the menu as shown below.

Left click once on the More commands and another dialog shows up as shown below

 Left click once on any of the commands/tools on the left side as shown below (I have clicked on “Calculate Now”)

Next left click once on Add as shown below

The tool/Command will now appear on the right side (Quick Access toolbar) as shown below. 

Click on OK as shown below and you will see the tool/command in the quick access toolbar.

To remove the tool/command from the right side (Quick Access toolbar)

Left click on the tool/command you wish to remove on the right side as shown below, I have clicked on “Print preview”.

Next, left click once on “Remove” as shown below

 The tool/command is removed from the right side (Quick access toolbar) as shown below “print preview” disappears from the right side.

Understanding The Ribbon, Galleries & Other Related Elements In Microsoft Excel 2007

The Ribbon

 The Ribbon was designed to help in swiftly finding the commands needed to complete a task. The Ribbon shown below displays various tabs that provide access to many tools, commands and features. 

The Tabs

The Tabs shown below display their own unique tools in the ribbon. Each Tab relates to a definite type of activity, some tabs are only shown when needed, they are called contextual tabs. The active tab is always highlighted (“Home tab” is the active tab below)

Contextual Tab

This appears only when needed. The format contextual tab which is shown below appears when a shape previously created is selected.

Ribbon Group

The ribbon group is a logical set of commands needed to perform a certain function all collected together under tabs. (The “number” group in the Home Tab is shown below)

Drop-Down Menus

These menus are presented by some tools in the ribbon to refine your selection. An example is shown below.

MiniBar

This is a floating set of formatting tools that appear when needed to help you perform a task swiftly without the use of the tools in the ribbon. An example is shown below.

Galleries

These are previews which some tools offer. The Themes Gallery is shown below.

Understanding The Basic Onscreen Elements

Microsoft Office Button

The Microsoft Office Button shown below displays the file menu from where you can open, save, print, send, prepare, close and publish files. You can also exit excel, set excel options and easily open recent documents from here.

Left click once on the Microsoft office button and the menu shows up.

Title Bar

This bar which is shown below displays the name of the open workbook file. It also displays supplementary information for contextual tabs.

 Formula Bar

This bar shown below is used to enter or edit formulae and perform calculations on the worksheet data.

 Status Bar

This bar shown below displays status information for the current worksheet, it can also be customized to display certain controls and buttons.

Quick Access Toolbar

The quick access toolbar shown below is a bar that can be personalized to display frequently used features so that they can be accessed effortlessly.

Worksheet

This is where you will be spending much of your time in Microsoft Excel. The worksheet highlighted below consists of rows and columns which interconnect to form cells. Each of the cells hold your data. 

Window controls

The three buttons shown below are used to Minimize, Maximize and Close the worksheet window

 Scroll Bars

These bars shown below are used to scroll horizontally or vertically through a worksheet.

Tooltip

This appears when you position your mouse on any tool, command or feature on the ribbon.The tooltip shown below describes the use of the tool, command or feature and occasionally provides a link to related help information.

 

Worksheet Tab

The worksheet tabs shown below are used to view different worksheets. The active worksheet tab always appears highlighted.

Creating A Shortcut on Your Desktop

Left Click once on start highlighted below, a dialog shows up as shown below

 Next, left Click once on All Programs as shown below.

Next left click once on Microsoft office from the new dialog that shows up like below, you may need to use the scroller bar to scroll up or down to locate Microsoft Office.

Right click once on Microsoft Excel 2007 highlighted below.

A dialog will show up as shown below, Left Click once on “Send to” 

Another dialog shows up, left click once on Desktop (create shortcut) as shown below

A shortcut of Microsoft excel 2007 is created on your desktop as shown below.

You can left click twice (double-click) on this shortcut to open Microsoft Excel 2007.

Starting and Closing Microsoft Excel 2007

Left Click once on start highlighted below, a dialog shows up as shown below

Next, left Click once on All Programs as shown below

Next left click once on Microsoft office from the dialog that shows up like below, you may need to use the scroller bar to scroll up or down to locate Microsoft Office.

Next, left Click once on All Programs as shown below.

Microsoft Excel 2007 should then open as shown below.

To Close Microsoft Excel

You can click on the red X button on the top right as shown below.
This will close Microsoft Excel 2007 if you have no unsaved data. If you have unsaved data Microsoft Excel prompts you do save it as shown below

If you have unsaved data Microsoft Excel prompts you do save it as shown below

If you click on Yes, the data will be saved. If you click No, Microsoft excel 2007 will close without saving your data and if you click on cancel Microsoft excel 2007 will still remain opened.

You can also click on the office Button as shown below.

A dialog shows up, click on exit excel as shown below. 

If you have unsaved data, Microsoft Excel 2007 prompts you to save the data as shown below.

If you click on Yes, the data will be saved. If you click No, Microsoft excel 2007 will close without saving your data and if you click on cancel Microsoft excel 2007 will still remain opened.

Update: Microsoft agrees to buy Skype for $8.5 billion

Microsoft has agreed to buy Skype for $8.5 billion, the companies announced Tuesday.

The companies' CEOs, Steve Ballmer and Tony Bates, will host a press conference later Tuesday to give details of the acquisition.

The boards of both companies have agreed to the deal, which will see Bates reporting directly to Ballmer as president of the Microsoft Skype division, illustrating the importance of the deal to the company.

Once the merger is complete, Microsoft plans to add Skype support to its Xbox and Kinect gaming devices and Windows Phone mobile operating system, and connect Skype users with its own Lync, Outlook and Xbox Live communications services.

Over the last week, the voice and video communications company had been rumored to be discussing an acquisition or partnership with Cisco, Facebook and Google.

Founded by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, Skype was bought by eBay in 2005. After that company failed to figure out how to integrate it with its online auction business, it sold a majority stake to an investment consortium including its founders and Silver Lake in 2009.

Skype made a name for itself offering free voice calls from PC to PC, charging to connect calls between PCs and the public telephone network. Later it added video chat and, more recently, software clients for smartphones.

Microsoft offered a similar PC-to-phone service for consumers under the Windows Live Call brand, and continues to offer PC-to-PC text, voice and video chat with its Windows Live Messenger service.

Skype and Microsoft also target businesses with their communications offerings. Microsoft has a server-based unified communications tool that connects PCs to a PBX to offer VoIP calling, instant messaging and videoconferencing.

Previously called Communications Server, it is now branded Lync, while Lync Online is a cloud-based service offering similar functionality.

Skype Connect, meanwhile, is a service that allows businesses to connect their PBX to Skype to handle incoming and outgoing calls. A management tool, Skype Manager, allows businesses to control call costs.

Microsoft May also be Interested in Skype

Rumor has it that Microsoft is in talks with Skype. The software giant is interested in either acquiring the Luxembourg-based company, partnering with, or at the very least investing in it.

Apparently we will find out more details very soon: corporate attorneys and other senior managers are said to be working late this weekend. In fact, an announcement may be made later this week, according to sources cited by GigaOm, which also gave three reasons as to why Microsoft would be ideal for a Skype partnership:


* Skype would give Microsoft a big boost in the hotly contested enterprise collaboration market places, thanks to Skype's voice, video and sharing capabilities. It would be particularly useful for competing against Cisco and Google, two of its main rivals in the collaboration business.
* It would give them a must-have application/service that can help with the adoption of the future versions of Windows Mobile operating system.
* It would give Microsoft an outside chance of working with carriers, many of them looking to partner with Skype as they start to transition to LTE-based networks.

Unsurprisingly, neither Skype nor Microsoft are commenting on the rumor and speculation. This happened earlier this week as well: neither Facebook nor Google wanted to comment either.

That's right: Microsoft is the third company to show interest in either partnering with Skype or buying the company. Out of the three, I would argue that Facebook makes the most sense.

Both Microsoft and Google currently have VoIP technology as well as both software and web services that provide it. Facebook does not, but it does have 600 million users on its website that would probably be very interested in making voice and video calls with their friends.

Seeing as we don't know what will happen yet, this is a perfect time to ask our readers what they would like to see. Would you prefer that Skype partners with one of the aforementioned tech giants, or gets bought out? If it has to be an acquisition, which company would you want to see buy Skype? 

Microsoft Excel:An Overview

Microsoft Excel is an exciting program produced by Microsoft Corporation as part of its Office Suite. It is an electronic spread sheet that runs on a personal computer; it is commonly used on the Windows Operating system but is also supported by Mac OS as well. It is comprised of organizational units called workbooks. A standard workbook contains worksheets and chart sheets. Excel is one of the most accepted tools for processing all kind of information.

Microsoft Excel stands out in manipulating numeric data. It has a lot of features, below is a list of some of its uses;

·    · Tracking and managing large quantities of data

 · Drawing Tool

 · Organize data into rows and columns

 · Create and Edit Spreadsheets

 · Database

 · Arithmetic Operations and Formulas

 · Presentation of data

 · Statistical analysis

Microsoft Excel is presently an indispensable product being widely used globally. It can be installed both as a stand-alone application and as a part of Office suite.

The software is sold as a part of the Microsoft office Suite, A traditional disc  retail license  is offered at  $149.99 for Office Home and Student, $279.99 for Office Home and Business, $499 for Office Professional and $99 for Office professional academic available for qualified organizations. A trial version can also be used to evaluate the Microsoft Excel for a limited amount of time without purchasing it.

The first version for excel is excel 2.0 which was released in 1987 which has undergone many developments and improvements and presently has a version Microsoft Excel 2010 which is part of Microsoft Office 2010 which was launched in 2010.

Microsoft Excel is not difficult to understand and mastering Microsoft Excel will make you stand-out in any job or line of business.