Excel 2013 For Dummies
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In addition to online and local imported from graphics files, with Excel 2013 you can insert preset graphic shapes in your chart or worksheet by selecting their thumbnails on the Shapes drop-down gallery on the Insert tab of the Ribbon.

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When you open the Shapes gallery by clicking the Shapes button in the Illustrations group on the Insert tab of the Ribbon, you see that it’s divided into nine sections: Recently Used Shapes, Lines, Rectangles, Basic Shapes, Block Arrows, Equation Shapes, Flowchart, Stars and Banners, and Callouts.

After you click the thumbnail of a preset shape in this drop-down gallery, the mouse pointer or Touch Pointer becomes a crosshair you use to draw the graphic by dragging it to the size you want.

After you release the mouse button or remove your finger or stylus from the touchscreen, the shape you’ve drawn in the worksheet is still selected. This is indicated by the selection handles around its perimeter and the rotation handle at the top, which you can use to reposition, resize, and rotate the shape, if need be.

Additionally, the program activates the Format tab on the Drawing Tools contextual tab and you can use the Shape Styles gallery or other command buttons to further format the shape to the way you want it. To set the shape and remove the selection and rotation handles, click anywhere in the worksheet outside of the shape.

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About the book author:

Greg Harvey, PhD, is President of Mind Over Media, an online media company. He has written all editions of Excel For Dummies, Excel All-in-One For Dummies, and Excel Workbook For Dummies. Greg is an experienced educator with a wide variety of interests.

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