5.3 Toolbars

Excel is bundled with several predefined Toolbars. Each of them comes with a set of tools that are appropriate for a particular type of task. Excel is packed with 13 built-in tool bars: Standard, Formatting, Query and Pivot, Chart, Drawing TipWizard, Forms, Stop recording, Visual Basic, Auditing, Workgroup, Microsoft and Full screen. You can customize these toolbars to suit your need or you can create your own toolbars.

In its default setting, Microsoft Excel displays the Standard and Formatting toolbars. However, depending on the requirement they can be changed to a different toolbar. In addition, as and when required other toolbars can be displayed. Alternatively, you can hide all the tool bars if you need to see more of screen. You can also move and resize your toolbars. To do so simply click on the toolbar except the button and drag it to new location. The floating toolbar then acquires a title bar and borders, which you can use to move and resize like any other window. Double click on the bar to return the toolbar to its original position. You can drag toolbars outside of the Excel workspace entirely. This is particularly useful if you are customizing workbooks intended for use by others. Here’s why as the developer, you can place toolbars being used solely for development purposes outside the excel workspace. The workspace is then more accurately emulating the target desktops where the workbook will be used.

5.3.1 Using Toolbars

1.   Open SALES.xls worksheet.

2.   With sales worksheet on-screen, right click anywhere on the toolbar (except buttons) to display a shortcut menu that lists the available toolbars.

3.   Click on chart from the shortcut menu to display a floating chart toolbar. (A feature called as Tool tips displays the button’s name below the button and a description of the button’s action in the status bar.)

4.   Double click the toolbar’s title bar to move it to the top of the screen, below the formatting toolbar.

5.   Point to the Chart toolbar and drag it from the toolbar area back to the worksheet.

6.   Click on the close box i.e. the box with the cross on the left end of the toolbar’s title bar. This will close and remove the toolbar from the screen.

We restrict our discussions mainly to Standard and Formatting toolbars.

5.3.1.1 The Standard Toolbar

Most of the tools on the standard toolbar are there for the good reason: these are commands that are used frequently. However, tools for creating maps and surfing the Web may be doing little more than consuming valuable screen real estate.  The table below explains the function and command equivalent of the icons on the toolbar.

To know the function of all the buttons on Standard Toolbar place the mouse pointer on the button, do not click it. In a moment, you will see that Excel displays the name of the button. This helpful feature is called as ToolTip.

5.3.1.2 The Formatting Toolbar

This toolbar is placed just below the Standard Toolbar. You will use this toolbar to apply common formats to the worksheet text selection, like making it Bold, Italics, Underline or changing the font style and size etc. These formats affect the appearance of individual characters. These can be applied to any number of characters ranging from one word to the entire worksheet.

Some of these formats are available in the format menu, however clicking buttons and selecting options from the lists on the Formatting toolbar is much faster.

Let’s discover the effects produced by some of the buttons available on the Formatting Toolbar. With the sales worksheet currently on-screen, perform the following activities:

1.   Place the cell pointer in cell C1, press the left mouse button and drag it toward cell E1 so as to select the title HOUSEHOLD TIPS COMPANY  

2.    Click on the bold button on the Formatting toolbar. The selected title changes to bold.

3.    Now click on the underline button. You can now remove the selection and click anywhere in the document. The text you selected is bold as well as underlined.

4.    Similarly try your hand in Italics button.

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