Here are some advanced features of Excel's user interface. They provide good examples of how a graphical user interface can be customised to suit a user's individual needs.
Tools/Customize/Options/Show Standard and Formatting Toolbars on two rows
Tools/Customize/Options/Always Show Full Menus
Choose View/Toolbars/Customize (or right click toolbar area). Choose Commands tab then a category of icons. Drag items from right panel onto toolbar at desired location.
Create a new menu by clicking New in the Customise dialogue. Enter a name and then choose icons from the various sections in the left and right panels of the Commands tab. Drag the icons on to the toolbar, which will expand as you add them. There are a number of icons that perform useful functions but which are not often seen e.g. Select Visible Cells, Select Current Region. Other icons you might add to a custom menu include Insert/Hyperlink, Insert/Symbol, Insert/From Scanner or Camera, etc. For any icon you add you can display text as well as the image so you can find out what an icon does.
Use the Reset button in the Customize dialogue to restore any toolbar to its original state.
Tools/Options/General, use spinner.
Save workbooks as a workspace - File/Save Workspace.
Default setting for cell movement after Enter is down. To change this choose Tools/Options/Edit and user Direction drop down.
To freeze rows above a certain point place cursor in A/row e.g. A5. Choose Window/Freeze Panes.
To freeze columns place cursor in column/1 e.g. C1. Choose Window/Freeze Panes.
To freeze rows and columns place cursor in e.g. C5. Choose Window/Freeze Panes.
To print title rows on each page choose File/Page Setup/Sheet. Under Rows to repeat at top enter e.g. 1:3. Use Columns to repeat section in same way to print columns. Alternatively, click the reference icon next to the text box and drag over the cells.
To print some rows once on the first page set the Rows to repeat to e.g. 4:6. This assumes a general heading in rows 1-3 and the repeating headings in rows 4-6.
Three sections allow various items to be added.
Select cells to print and choose File/Print/Set Print Area.
Use Format/Column/AutoFit Selection
Use Format/Cells/Alignment/Wrap Text on long text.
Set page orientation to landscape.
Choose File/Page Setup and use the Scaling options to adjust the page.
When you have a number of workbooks open use Window/Arrange to bring them all into view.
With two workbooks open you can choose Window/Compare Side by Side to allow direct comparison between them.
Choose File/Save As and select CSV from the list of options. It is best to set dates to dd/mm/yyyy before saving as text.
If you have a number of workbooks to open create a menu workbook and use Ctrl-K to set up the titles as hyperlinks.
Where icons have a companion for the opposite effect the Shift key will perform the reverse function e.g. increase/decrease decimals.
To help with validation of data entry choose Tools/Speech/Show Text to Speech Toolbar. Click on the Speak on Enter icon to activate it.