Question
What is the ribbon in Microsoft Excel?
What components are included in the Microsoft Excel ribbon?
Answer
There are three basic components to the Ribbon:
- Tabs: There are nine of them across the top. Each represents core tasks you do in Excel.
- Groups: Each tab has groups that show related items together.
- Commands: A command is a button, a box to enter information, or a menu.
The principal commands in Excel are gathered on the first tab, the Home tab. The commands on this tab are those that Microsoft has identified as the most commonly used when people do basic tasks with worksheets.
For example, the Paste, Cut, Copy and Format Painter commands are arranged first on the Home tab, in the Clipboard group. Font formatting commands are next, in the Font group. Commands to center text or align text to the left or right are in the Alignment group, number formats are in the Number group, cell style and formatting are in the Styles group, commands to insert and delete cells, rows, columns, and worksheets are in the Cells group, sort and filter command, find and select command, clear and fill are in the Editing group.
Groups pull together all the commands you're likely to need for a particular type of task, and throughout the task they remain on display and readily available, instead of being hidden in menus. These vital commands are visible above your workspace.
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