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The Excel Ribbon is the most important aspect of the Excel interface and contains the great majority of the program’s commands. The Ribbon is arranged into a series of Tabs, each of which contains a series of related commands. Tabs are accessed simply by simply clicking on the name of each Tab. Within each Tab, commands are organised in groups: the name of each group is displayed at the bottom of the group.

The Home Tab contains the most often used commands. Here you’ll find the commands which one uses all the time; clipboard such as Cut Copy and Paste; commands for formatting the data within your cells; choosing the font; changing the alignment and the format of numbers; commands for chopping and changing cells such as inserting rows and columns; and finally you will also find commands for sorting and editing your data.

The Insert Tab, as the name suggests, is used to add or insert elements into your worksheets. Some of these elements are part and parcel of Excel such as charts; other elements need to be inserted from outside the program like images, for example, adding a company logo to an Excel form.

The Page Layout Tab has commands for controlling the appearance of your worksheets as a whole. Here you’ll find margins, orientation, paper size and the area of the worksheet to be printed. You will normally use the page layout Tab before you print your worksheets.

The Formulas Tab contains commands for dealing with the most powerful aspect of Excel: formulas and functions. Here you can insert functions, track down errors in formulas and control the way in which Excel deals with formulas and carries out its calculations.

In the Data Tab you will find commands for importing information into Excel from sources such as databases; sorting information and also filtering (in other words returning data which matches certain criteria).

Here you’ll also find advanced tools for validating data, consolidation, performing “What if?” analysis. Also, in the outline section, you will find commands for assigning different levels to different parts of the worksheet. Excel’s outlining commands make large worksheet easier to navigate and to manage.

The general theme of the Review Tab is checking and protection. It is here that you will find the spell-checker, facilities for users to add comments to a worksheet and commands for protecting worksheets and workbooks.

The View Tab contains controls relating to the way in which your workbooks and worksheets are viewed. Here you’ll find commands for zooming in and out on your work and for working with multiple worksheets and workbooks simultaneously.

The Developer Tab contains options for automation. It is here that you’ll find tools for creating macros. Macros allow you to write Visual Basic code which can automate almost every aspect of Microsoft Excel.