Excel Ribbon

Excel Ribbon explains the tabbed toolbar at the top of the Excel window and what kind of commands live on each tab.

What Is the Ribbon?

The Ribbon is the strip of tabs and buttons across the top of the Excel window. Each tab groups related commands together, and each tab is further divided into labeled groups, such as "Font" or "Alignment", so you can find a tool without hunting through menus.

The Main Ribbon Tabs

TabWhat It Contains
HomeEveryday tools: fonts, colors, alignment, number formats, and basic editing commands
InsertTables, charts, PivotTables, images, shapes, and links
Page LayoutMargins, orientation, page size, and print area settings
FormulasThe function library, named ranges, and formula auditing tools
DataSorting, filtering, data validation, and importing external data
ReviewSpell check, comments, and sheet protection
ViewFreeze panes, gridlines, zoom, and workbook view options

A separate File tab sits to the left of these tabs. Clicking it opens Backstage view, a full-screen menu used for saving, opening, printing, and changing overall Excel options, rather than for editing the worksheet itself.

Home Tab in Detail

Because the Home tab is used constantly, it is worth knowing its groups by name. Reading left to right, they are:

  • Clipboard - cut, copy, paste, and the format painter
  • Font - typeface, size, bold, italic, borders, and fill color
  • Alignment - left/center/right, wrap text, and merge cells
  • Number - number formats like currency, percentage, and date
  • Styles - conditional formatting and predefined cell styles
  • Cells - insert, delete, and format rows, columns, and sheets
  • Editing - sort, filter, find & select, and AutoSum

Formulas and Data Tabs

The Formulas tab organizes every built-in function into categories such as Financial, Logical, and Text, and includes a "Function Library" so you can search for the right one. The Data tab is where you sort a list, apply filters, remove duplicates, and connect to outside data sources like text files or databases.

Note: If the Ribbon is taking up too much space, double-click any tab name, or press Ctrl+F1, to collapse it to just the tab labels. Click a tab once to expand it again temporarily.

Customizing the Ribbon

Right-click anywhere on the Ribbon and choose "Customize the Ribbon" to add or remove tabs and groups, or to build your own custom tab with the commands you use most often.

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