Customize Excel Ribbons

Customizing Excel Ribbons

1. Excel offers us 9 ribbons, from File to Help, across the top of the workspace. Each one contains a set of tools related to certain activities and features in Excel.

2. You can customize them in terms of how they display and you can add, remove, and rearrange the buttons on them. You don't have to do any of that, though, so while I'm going to show you how, please know you don't need to change anything. The default ribbons and all of their settings work for 99% of users doing 99% of the things you'll ever do with Excel.

3. Now, if you want to make changes, let's look at how that's done.

4. First, we can collapse the ribbons so they take up less vertical space. To do this, right-click any ribbon and choose Collapse the Ribbon.

5. To return them to their standard height, right-click again and then re-select the same command.

6. Let's look at each of the ribbons, one at a time.

7. First we have the File tab, which opens a vertical ribbon of commands pertaining to what we do to files - open, close, save, share, and print them.

8. Next, we have the Home tab, which displays a broad range of the commands you'll use most often for data entry, formatting, adding and removing cells, rows, and columns, and for performing simple calculations.

9. Next, we have the Insert tab. All commands for adding things to the open worksheet - from images to diagrams to shapes to charts and data sorting and filtering tools.

10. The Page Layout tab is useful for controlling how your worksheet will look when printed - and in the case of the Arrange tools, how your inserted elements stack up and align to each other.

11. You'd think you'd spend a lot of time on the Formulas tab, but once you're familiar with Excel's formula and function tools and commands that you can access through the Home tab and right within your cells, you won't actually spend much time here.

12. Next, we have the Data tab, which contains commands for maintaining your worksheets that serve as tables or lists of records. From importing data from other applications to sorting, filtering, and reporting on your data, it's all here.

13. The Review tab is all about collaboration. Here's where you access tools for commenting on and editing a worksheet along with other users. It's also where your spellcheck tools are found and where you can apply security to keep people from editing things you want to protect from changes.

14. The View tab gives you tools for changing how you look at your worksheets, mainly in terms of how the worksheets will look when printed - where page breaks will occur, and whether or not gridlines and headings appear in the printout. You can also adjust your zoom settings here, to get closer to or step back from your worksheet visually.

15. Last is the Help tab, where you can access online help from Microsoft and other users.

16. Now - to customize these tabs, you can go to the File tab, choose Options, and then select the Customize Ribbon command, or to get to the same dialog box, choose right-click any ribbon tab and choose Customize Ribbon.

17. Once in the dialog box, the checkboxes allow you to choose which ribbons you see in the workspace, and within each ribbon, you can see the button groups and buttons within those groups currently included on the ribbons.

18. To add buttons to the ribbons, you can either create an entirely new ribbon with the New Tab button, or select an existing ribbon from the list and click the New Group button to create a new section within that tab.

19. So here I’ll do both of those things to show you the process. I'll create a New Tab called My Tools (using the Rename button once I've added and selected the tab), and then I’ll add a new Group called Favorites.
20. Next, to see all the possible commands I could add, I'll switch from Popular Commands at the top of the left-hand list to All Commands, and I'm going to add some of the tools I used most often - and now they'll all be in one place.

21. I'm want to choose Thick Outside Border, Text Box, and the Sort Ascending & Sort Descending buttons – and to quickly move to the commands starting with the letter T, I just type that letter – saving time scrolling through the hundreds of commands available.

22. If I add something I didn't mean to – I’ve added Sparkline Color by mistake – I can select it and then click the Remove button, and it's gone.

23. SO - with my new tab and group all set, I'll click the up triangle on the far right to place the new ribbon right before the Home tab, and then I'll click OK.

24. Here's my new ribbon, ready to offer me the tools I use most often - and I can add to it at any time, using the Excel Options dialog box.
25. If I change my mind and don’t want to see it anymore, I just return to the Excel Options dialog box, select the tab I created, and either uncheck it to hide it but keep it available for the future, or I can select it and click the Remove button to delete it.
26. Note that you cannot remove any of the built-in ribbons, groups, or buttons – the Remove button is dimmed. Only the tabs, groups, or buttons you add can be removed.