Excel 2013 is a spreadsheet program that allows you to store, organize, and analyze information. While some people think excel is only used by certain people to process complicated data, anyone can learn how to take advantage of the program’s powerful features. Whether you’re keeping a budget, organizing a training log, or creating an invoice, Excel makes it easy to work with different types of data. 

In Excel there are many different features. The ribbon is that bar at the top that contains most of excel's most commonly used features. Another one is the quick access toolbar which you can customize to fit your style or needs. Excel 2013 uses a tabbed ribbon system instead of traditional menus. You would use the ribbon to access commands and there are also groups of commands. Certain commands like adobe acrobat reader may install additional tabs to the ribbon. 

Creating and Opening Workbooks 

Excel files are called workbooks. Whenever you start a new project in Excel, you’ll need to create a new workbook. There are several ways to start working with a workbook in Excel 2013. You can choose to create a new workbook either with a blank workbook or a predesigned template or open an existing workbook. A template is a predesigned spreadsheet you can use to create a new workbook quickly. Templates often include custom formatting and predefined formulas, so they can save you a lot of time and effort when starting a new project. 

Sometimes you may need to work with workbooks that were created in earlier versions of Microsoft Excel, such as Excel 2003 or Excel 2000. When you open these types of workbooks, they will appear in compatibility mode. Compatibility mode disables certain features, so you’ll only be able to access commands found in the program that was used to create the workbook. For example, if you open a workbook created in Excel 2003, you can only use tabs and commands found in Excel 2003.