Title - Excel 2007 for Starters: The Missing Manual

Author – Dave Roman, GCPCUG Member

Category - Book

Subject - MS Excel 2007 Basics

Date - May 2007

 

Have you tried the new Excel yet?

 

This O’Reilly book by author Matthew MacDonald covers the number of new features and a very new look of Excel 2007. Previous versions became overly complex with the button heavy toolbars, so Microsoft decided to start over. The result is a redesigned user interface that seems to make sense (so says the author). The centerpiece of this redesign is the super-toolbar called the ribbon.

 

Everything you want to do is in the ribbon. To make it easier, the ribbon uses tabs! Let’s quickly cover some of the new features.

 

1.     Worksheets can now be bigger. Formulas can be more complex and the cells can hold way more text. A worksheet can span an eye-popping 16,000 columns and 1 million rows. Who has ever used a spreadsheet that big?

2.     Excel takes advantage of a dual core CPU. Calculations are even faster on these computers.

3.     There is a whole new graphics engine that will make the charts look better than ever.

4.     Formula Auto Complete prompts you with possible values when you type in complex formulas.

5.     Tables. In 2007, lists morph into tables and become more popular.

6.     PDF files. You can save your spreadsheet as a PDF file by accessing the free download from Microsoft. This feature did not make it into this version due to legal problems. The free download is at www.microsoft.com/downloads.

 

This book has only 8 chapters. Most of the Excel text books I’ve taught with had 12 to 14 chapters, but then again they were made for teaching college credit courses.

 

You can save your spreadsheet in the old format (97-2003) or if you want, you can get a free add in provided by Microsoft that allows your current version of Excel to read Excel 2007 files.

 

At the end of some chapters, they give you a few tips, called “GEM IN THE ROUGH”. Did you know you can use the ReDo button for repetitive tasks? If you use the Ctrl+B to bold the font in a cell, you can move your cursor to a different cell and hit ReDo and bold that cell! They give you many neat tricks to use, unless you are a power user and already know this “stuff”.

 

Most chapters have a POWER USERS’ CLINIC with advanced tips for “users”.

 

The book is well written in larger print, for those of us who have to use bifocals. It is also an easy read and doesn’t overwhelm you. Beginners and pros alike will benefit from the information in this book.

Oh yes, there is no CD with this book, however every web address, practice file and downloadable software mentioned in this book is available at www.missingmanuals.com. They claim that they save you $5.00 by doing it this way. Pretty good except for those of us who are still using dial-up! What….

 

What did you say? Are there people still using dial up? I’ll bet they are still using Commodores, Epsons and TR3’s too!

 

Good book. Buy it if you are an Excel person.

 

Excel 2007 for Starters – The Missing Manual

Matthew MacDonald

ISBN 0-596-52832-9

Number of Pages: 332, Publisher: O’Reilly Media Inc.: US $19.99

Discount of 35% for User Group members
Use code: DSUG
http://www.oreilly.com