Part I: Getting Started with Excel
Excel provides four ways to save your workbook:■ Click the Save icon on the Quick Access toolbar. (It looks like an old-fashioned
floppy d isk.)
■ Press Ctrl+S.■ (^) Press Shift+F12.
■ Choose File ➪ Save.
Saving a file overwrites the previous version of the file on your hard drive. If you open a workbook and then com-
pletely mess it up, don’t save the file. Instead, close the workbook without saving it and then reopen the good copy.
If your workbook has already been saved, it’s saved again using the same filename in the
same location. If you want to save the workbook to a new file or to a different location,
choose File ➪ Save As (or press F12).
If your workbook has never been saved, you’ll be taken to the Save As pane in the
Backstage view. Here you can choose a location, such as on your PC or in your OneDrive
account—if you have one. You enter the filename in the right pane and click Save, or you
can click the Browse button to show the Save As dialog box, where you can change the
folder and type the filename. A new (unsaved) workbook has a default name, such as Book1
or Book2. Although Excel allows you to use these generic workbook names for filenames,
you’ll almost always want to specify a more descriptive filename in the Save As dialog box.
The Save As dialog box is similar to the Open dialog box. Select the desired folder in the
folder list on the left. After you select the folder, enter the filename in the File Name field.
You don’t need to specify a file extension—Excel adds it automatically, based on the file
type specified in the Save as Type field. By default, files are saved in the standard Excel file
format, which uses an .xlsx file extension.
To change the default file format for saving files, choose File ➪ Options to access the Excel Options dialog box. Click
the Save tab and change the setting for the Save Files in This Format option. For example, if your workbooks must
be compatible with older versions of Excel (versions before Excel 2007), you can change the default format to Excel
97–2003 Workbook (*.xls). Doing so eliminates the need to select the older file type every time you save a new
workbook.
If your workbook contains VBA macros, saving it with an .xlsx file extension will erase all of the macros. It must
be saved with an .xlsm extension (or saved in the XLS or XLSB format). If your workbook has macros, Excel will still
propose to save it as an XLSX file. In other words, Excel suggests a file format that will destroy your macros! It will,
however, warn you that the macros will be lost.