Page 42 - Excel 2013 All-in-One For Dummies

24 Excel’s Ribbon User Interface
The moment you deselect the object (usually by clicking somewhere on the sheet outside of its boundaries), the contextual tool for that object and all of its tabs immediately disappears from the Ribbon, leaving only the regular tabs — Home, Insert, Page Layout, Formulas, Data, Review, and View — displayed.
Adding the Developer tab to the Ribbon
If you do a lot of work with macros (see Book VIII, Chapter 1) and XML files in Excel, you should add the Developer tab to the Ribbon. This tab contains all the command buttons normally needed to create, play, and edit macros as well as to import and map XML files. To add the Developer tab to the Excel Ribbon, follow these steps:
1. Click the File menu button followed by the Options item in the Backstage view (Alt+FT).
The Excel Options dialog box opens in the worksheet view.
2. Select the Customize Ribbon option in the Excel Options dialog box and then click the Developer check box under Main Tabs in the Customize the Ribbon list box on the right. Click OK to finish.
Selecting with mouse and keyboard
Because Excel 2013 runs on many different types of devices, the most efficient means of selecting Ribbon commands depends not only on the device on which you’re running the program, but on the way that device is equipped as well.
For example, when I use Excel 2013 on my Microsoft Surface tablet with
its touch cover (equipped with both keyboard and touchpad) connected,
I select commands from the Excel Ribbon more or less the same way I do when running Excel on my Windows desktop computer equipped with a standalone physical keyboard and mouse or on my Windows 8 laptop com- puter with its built-in physical keyboard and track pad.
However, when I run Excel 2013 on my Surface tablet when the touch cover is not connected, I’m limited to selecting Ribbon commands directly on the touchscreen with my finger or stylus.
The most direct method for selecting Ribbon commands equipped with a physical keyboard and mouse is to click the tab that contains the command button you want and then click that button in its group. For example, to insert an online image into your spreadsheet, you click the Insert tab and then click the Illustrations button followed by the Online Pictures button to open the Insert Pictures dialog box.