Exiting Excel (A Few Points to Remember)

All right, you've finished building an awesome worksheet and you're ready to get on to other tasks (like the next chapter!). Before you do, read over the following steps that we'd like you to recite quietly to yourself each time you're finished working for the day.

Each time I finish working with Excel, I, [insert name], will do the following:

1. I'll save my workbook to disk with a clear, easy-to-remember filename. I can do this at any time by choosing Save As from the File menu (for new files) or by choosing Save from the File menu (for existing files).

TIP

---

Please don't wait until you're finished creating your document to save it to disk. We recommend saving your work to disk every 10 minutes or so to avoid losing data in a power outage or system crash.

I'll give the spelling of labels and text in my worksheet a once-over by choosing the Spelling command from the Tools menu. Since the spelling checker is smart and only checks the words in my worksheet, I'm not worried that this step will slow me down.

(Optional) I'll choose Print from the File menu to print my worksheet. If I want to adjust the margins, headers, or footers in my worksheet before I print, I'll choose Page Setup from the File menu and Print Preview from the File menu.

When I'm finished working, I'll choose Exit from the File menu to exit Excel. (I won't simply turn off my computer.) If I want to retain the changes in my worksheet, I'll click Yes when prompted by Excel to save my changes.

(Optional) After I exit Excel, now and then I'll make a backup copy of my valuable workbook files on a floppy disk by using Windows Explorer. I know that this is the best way to keep my data safe in the sometimes-uncertain world of electromagnetic media.

SEE ALSO

---

For more information about using Internet documents and the Web toolbar, see "Browsing Documents on the Web"