Excel 2010 Bible

Part I: Getting Started with Excel

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If you use a tool on the Mini toolbar, the shortcut menu disappears, but the toolbar remains visible

so you can apply other formatting if you like. Also, notice that after you use it, the Mini toolbar

gradually fades away if you move the mouse pointer away from it. To hide the Mini toolbar, just

click in any cell.

Some people find the Mini toolbar distracting. Unfortunately, Excel does not provide an option to

turn it off. The Excel Options dialog box does offer the Show Mini Toolbar on Selection option,

but this option applies only to selecting text while editing a cell.

Tip
If you really want to disable the Mini toolbar, you can execute this VBA statement in the Immediate window of
the Visual Basic Editor (VBE):

Application.ShowMenuFloaties = True

Yes, setting the property to True is completely counter-intuitive! But it works. You need to execute this state-
ment only one time, and Excel remembers the setting between sessions. If you change your mind, execute that
statement again, but change True to False.

Using the Format Cells dialog box ...........................................................................

The formatting controls available on the Home tab of the Ribbon are sufficient most of the time,

but some types of formatting require that you use the Format Cells dialog box. This tabbed dialog

box lets you apply nearly any type of stylistic formatting, as well as number formatting. The for-

mats that you choose in the Format Cells dialog box apply to the cells that you have selected at the

time. Later sections in this chapter cover the tabs of the Format Cells dialog box.

Note
When you use the Format Cells dialog box, you don’t see the effects of your formatting choices until you
click OK. n

After selecting the cell or range to format, you can display the Format Cells dialog box by using

any of the following methods:

l Press Ctrl+1.

l (^) Click the dialog box launcher in Home ➪ Font, Home ➪ Alignment, or Home ➪ Number.
(The dialog box launcher is the small downward-pointing arrow icon displayed to the right
of the group name in the Ribbon.) When you display the Format Cells dialog box using a
dialog box launcher, the dialog box is displayed with the appropriate tab visible.
l (^) Right-click the selected cell or range and choose Format Cells from the shortcut menu.
l Click the More command in some of the drop-down controls in the Ribbon. For example,
the Home ➪ Font ➪ Border ➪ More Borders drop-down includes an item named More
Borders.
The Format Cells dialog box contains six tabs: Number, Alignment, Font, Border, Patterns, and
Protection. The following sections contain more information about the formatting options available
in this dialog box.