Lesson 3

Preview

Excel Start Options

STEP 1: If we are a Microsoft 365 user, we can sign-in to Microsoft 365 by entering into a web browser URL window: office.com​
​Click on the “Sign in” button as shown in FIGURE 1 below. 

Figure 1

STEP 2A: ​Enter the Microsoft 365 account email address and select the “Next” button, as shown in FIGURE 2

Figure 2

STEP 2B: Enter te Microsoft 365 account password and select the “Sign in” button, as shown in FIGURE 3.

Figure 3

STEP 3: Select the Office application we wish you use. Remember that the various app icons displayed on the left margin are the “Online version” of the app; not the desktop version of the app as shown in FIGURE 4. When we select an app’s online version, we save our work to Microsoft OneDrive. 

Figure 4

STEP 4: We will show 2 methods for opening Excel desktop version:
​STEP 4A: (Method 1) Click on the Windows Start button (symbol is 4 panes of a window located in lower-left corner of screen) and select Excel from the pop-up menu (FIGURE 5).

Method 1 (FIGURE 5)

STEP 4B: (Method 2) Select the magnifying glass icon next to the Start button and enter “Excel”. We should see the Excel app logo appear at the top of the Search pop-up box (FIGURE 6).

Method 2 (Figure 6)

STEP 5: After Excel launches, Excel will appear with this start screen (FIGURE 7) instead of opening directly into a blank worksheet. A screenshot of the Excel start screen is shown below in FIGURE 7. An appropriate selection to choose is “Blank workbook” if we are beginning a new file. We would select the “Open” icon followed by selecting “Browse” to locate an Excel workbook already created. If we want to configure Excel to open directly to a blank workbook every time we start Excel, we can select the “Options” choice from the left margin. In the  Options section, “Ease of Access”​ uncheck the box, “Show the Start screen when this application starts”.  

Start Screen (Figure 7)

Options available to choose from the Start screen include:

  • Selecting one of many pre-made templates categorized by function
  • Selecting your own customized templates
  • A blank workbook for beginning new projects
  • Open other workbooks
  • Pinned files
  • Recovered files

New Screen

If we want to select one of the many pre-built templates that come with Excel or one of our own customized templates that we created, select “New” from the left margin. The New screen is shown below in FIGURE 8. New would be an appropriate choice if we want to select from one of the many Excel pre-built templates that encompass a wide range of categories including Business, Personal, Lists, Planners and Trackers, Charts, Budgets, Financial Management, and more.
The “Blank workbook” choice at the top can be selected when beginning a new project. Below it, we see two links: Office and Personal. Office is the default choice which shows many pre-built templates. If we select the “Personal” link, we can access any customized templates that we created ourselves. 

New Screen (Figure 8)

Open Screen

The Open screen is selected by clicking on “Open” in the left margin, and provides 3 options for opening existing workbooks: “This PC”, “Add a Place”, and “Browse”. “This PC” choice provides folders for workbook access and “Browse” provides a standard “Open” dialog box for locating workbooks. “Add a Place” choice provide a way to add Microsoft OneDrive including personal and/or business OneDrive access to workbooks. Let’s look at each of these 3 options below.

This PC Option

By selecting the “This PC” option (FIGURE 9) , we may select which file we desire by a variety of ways. We can open the “Open” dialog box by selecting the Documents folder illustrated at the top of the graphic; we can select the up arrow next to the Documents folder, which will move us up one level in the directory file structure. We also have a “Search” box in which we can enter the filename.

Figure 9

Add a Place Option

When we select “Add a Place” option below (FIGURE 10), we are prompted to enter the email address associated with the OneDrive for Business account we are adding. As we see, a OneDrive personal account has already been added. 

Figure 10

(Figure 11) As a result, we see the OneDrive for Business account added (OneDrive – jhsconsulting.com).

Figure 11

Browse Option

The “Browse” option (FIGURE 12) is the 3rd option and it opens a dialog box identical to a standard Windows Open dialog box. We may select the folder from the left-side of the dialog box. Then, we can select the workbook/worksheet we need from the right-side of the box.

END OF LESSON 3


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