Opening and Saving Excel Files

Creating a New Excel Workbook

To create a new Excel workbook, you use the "New" command in the FILE menu.

When you click on the NEW command, a dialog box will open that looks like this:

Click on the Workbook Icon and press OKAY. A new, empty Excel workbook will open.

The new workbook will be given a default name by Excel that starts with the word "Book". The first one you create during a particular work session will be named "Book 1".

If you create additional new workbooks during the same work session, Excel will name these "Book 2", then "Book 3", "Book 4" and so on.

Exercise: Switch to Excel and open a new workbook.

Saving a New Excel Workbook

To save a new workbook, you use the SAVE command on the file menu:

When you click on the SAVE command, a dialog box will open that looks like this:

First, find the directory that you want to save the new workbook in. The windows file directory is shown at the top in the "Save In" pull down menu.

Next, enter a name for your workbook in the "File Name" entry box at the bottom. Then click "SAVE".

Exercise:

1. Switch to Excel and save your new workbook. Call your new workbook "workbook1". Be sure to remember the name of the directory you saved it in.
2. After you have saved it, check to see that the name "workbook1.xls" appears in the title bar.

Closing Excel

You can close Excel by clicking on its close button. This button is an "X" that appears at the far right of the title bar.

You can close an individual worksheet in Excel by clicking on its close button. This button is an "X" that appears on the Menu bar at the far right. You can also click on the Excel icon at the left of the standard toolbar and use the drop down menu to close the worksheet.

Exercise:

1. Switch to Excel and close your new workbook. Notice that Excel itself does not close.
2. Now close Excel.

Opening an Existing Excel Workbook

If you have recently used the Excel workbook you want to open, it will appear in the recently used list in the FILE menu. Just click on the FILE menu and look at the list of files that appear at the bottom of the pull down menu. Find your file and click on it. It will open.

If you have not recently used it, use the OPEN command on the FILE menu. When you click on OPEN, the Open dialog box will open.

First, find the directory that your workbook is stored in. The windows file directory is shown at the top in the "Look In" pull down menu. When you have selected a directory, you will see a list of files you can open.

In the list, highlight the file you want to open. Its name will appear in the file name box at the bottom of the dialog box when it is selected by highlighting it. Then click the "OPEN" button.

Exercise:

1. Open Excel.
2. Find and open your new workbook: "workbook1.xls".

Saving an Existing Excel Workbook

You can save an existing Excel workbook by using the SAVE command. You can also press the control button and the "S" key at the same time - CTL+S. This is a quick save that you can use whenever you want to save your changes.

Saving an Existing Excel Workbook with a New Name

You can save an existing Excel workbook under a new file name. When you do this, Excel makes a copy of your workbook and saves that. The original workbook is not affected, it is simply copied and closed.

To do this, you use the "SAVE AS" command in the "FILE" menu. When the Save As dialog box opens, select your directory and give the file a new name. Then press the save button.

Exercise: Save your workbook1.xls workbook as "workbook2".

Working with Multiple Workbooks

Excel will allow you to have more than one workbook open at a time. You can switch between the various workbooks by using the WINDOW menu item on the Menu bar. Excel will list all of the workbooks that are currently open on the drop down menu of the WINDOW menu item.

Exercise:

1. Open workbook1.xls
2. Click on the WINDOW menu item and switch between workbook1 and workbook2. Note: If you have closed workbook2.xls, you will need to open it so you can do this exercise.

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