Excel 2010 Bible

Part I: Getting Started with Excel

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Excel supports three types of templates, which I discuss in the following sections:

l The default workbook template: Used as the basis for new workbooks.

l (^) The default worksheet template: Used as the basis for new worksheets inserted into a
workbook.
l (^) Custom workbook templates: Usually, these ready-to-run workbooks include formulas,
but they can be as simple or as complex as you like. Typically, these templates are set up
so that a user can simply plug in values and get immediate results. The Microsoft Office
Online templates (discussed earlier in this chapter) are examples of this type of template.

Working with the default templates ........................................................................

The term default template may be a little misleading. If you haven’t created your own template files

to control the default settings, Excel uses its own internal settings — not an actual template file.

In other words, Excel uses your template files to set the defaults for new workbooks or worksheets,

if these files exist. But if you haven’t created these files, Excel is perfectly happy to use its own

settings.

Using the workbook template to change workbook defaults ..........................

Every new workbook that you create starts out with some default settings. For example, the work-

book has three worksheets, the worksheets have gridlines, the page header and footer are blank,

and text appears in the fonts specified by the default document template. Columns are 8.43 units

wide, and so on. If you’re not happy with any of the default workbook settings, you can change

them by creating a workbook template.

Making changes to Excel’s default workbook is fairly easy to do, and it can save you lots of time in

the long run. Here’s how you change Excel’s workbook defaults:

1. Open a new workbook.


2. Add or delete sheets to give the workbook the number of worksheets that you want.


3. Make any other changes that you want to make, which can include column widths,
   named styles, page setup options, and many of the settings that are available in the
   Excel Options dialog box. To change the default formatting for cells, choose
   Home ➪ Styles ➪ Cell Styles and then modify the settings for the Normal style. For exam-
   ple, you can change the default font, size, or number format.


4. When your workbook is set up to your liking, choose File ➪ Save As.


5. In the Save As dialog box, select Excel Template (.xltx) from the Save As Type list.
   If your template contains any VBA macros, select Excel Macro-Enabled Template
   (.xltm).


6. Enter book for the filename.