Creating, Opening and Exporting Workbook and Compatibility mode

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 and 2016 and 2019. You can choose to create a new workbook—either with a blank workbook or a predesigned template

Create a new blank workbook

• Select the File tab. Backstage view will appear.

• Select New, then click Blank workbook.
• A new blank workbook will appear.

Open an existing workbook

In addition to creating new workbooks, you'll often need to open a workbook that was previously saved.

• Navigate to Backstage view, then click Open.
• Select Computer, and then click Browse.

• The Open dialog box will appear. Locate and select your workbook, then click Open.

To pin a workbook

If you frequently work with the same workbook, you can pin it to Backstage view for quick access.

• Navigate to Backstage view and then click Open. Your recently edited workbooks will appear.

• Hover the mouse over the workbook you wish to pin. A pushpin icon will appear next to the workbook. Click the pushpin icon.

• The workbook will stay in Recent Workbooks. To unpin a workbook, simply click the pushpin icon again.

Compatibility mode 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 kinds 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.

In order to exit Compatibility mode, you'll need to convert the workbook to the current version type. However, if you're collaborating with others who only have access to an earlier version of Excel, it's best to leave the workbook in Compatibility mode so the format will not change. To convert a workbook If you want access to all of the Excel 2013 features, you can convert the workbook to the 2013 file format. Note that converting a file may cause some changes to the original layout of the workbook.

• Click the File tab to access Backstage view.
• Locate and select Convert command

• The Save As dialog box will appear. Select the location where you wish to save the workbook, enter a file name for the presentation, and click Save.
• The workbook will be converted to the newest file type.

Save and Save As Excel offers two ways to save a file: Save and Save As. These options work in similar ways, with a few important differences:

Save: When you create or edit a workbook, you'll use the Save command to save your changes. You'll use this command most of the time. When you save a file, you'll only need to choose a file name and location the first time. After that, you can just click the Save command to save it with the same name and location.

Save As: You'll use this command to create a copy of a workbook while keeping the original. When you use Save As, you'll need to choose a different name and/or location for the copied version.