How to Start and Exit Excel 2010

Microsoft Office Excel 2010 provides several methods for starting and exiting the program. You can open Excel by using the Start menu or a desktop shortcut. When you want to exit Excel, you can do so by using the File tab, the Close button, or a keyboard shortcut.

Starting Excel 2010 from the Start menu

To start Excel 2010 from the Windows Start menu, choose Start→All Programs→Microsoft Office→Microsoft Excel 2010. A new, blank workbook appears, ready for you to enter data.

Excel 2010 displays a new, blank workbook when you start the program.

Pinning Excel 2010 to the Start menu

If you use Excel all the time, you may want to make its program option a permanent part of the Windows Start menu.

Follow these steps to pin Excel 2010 to the Start menu:

1. Click the Start button and then right-click Microsoft Excel 2010 on the Start menu to open its shortcut menu.

   If you don’t see Microsoft Excel 2010 displayed on the recently used portion on the left side of the Windows Start menu, start Excel 2010 and then repeat this step.

2. Click Pin to Start Menu on the shortcut menu.

After pinning Excel to the Start menu, the Microsoft Excel 2010 option always appears in the left column of the Start menu and you can then launch Excel by clicking the Start button and then clicking this option.

Creating an Excel 2010 desktop shortcut

You may prefer having the Excel 2010 program icon appear on the Windows desktop so that you can launch the program from there.

To create an Excel 2010 desktop shortcut, follow these steps:

1. Choose Start→All Programs→Microsoft Office.

2. Right-click Microsoft Excel 2010, highlight Send To on the shortcut menu, and click Desktop (Create Shortcut) on its continuation menu.

   A shortcut named Microsoft Excel 2010 appears on your desktop. You can rename the shortcut to something shorter, such as Excel 2010.

3. Right-click the Microsoft Excel 2010 icon on the desktop and then click Rename on the shortcut menu.

4. Replace the current name by typing a new shortcut name, such as Excel 2010, and then click anywhere on the desktop.

Exiting Excel 2010

When you’re ready to quit Excel, you have several choices for shutting down the program:

• Choose File→Exit.

• Press Alt+F4.

• Click the Close button (the X) in the upper-right corner of the Excel 2010 program window.

If you try to exit Excel after working on a workbook and you haven’t saved your latest changes, Excel displays an alert box asking whether you want to save your changes. To save your changes before exiting, click the Save button. If you don’t want to save your changes, click Don't Save.