Page Layout, Review & View — Excel guide
The three tabs you visit on purpose rather than live on: Page Layout for printing, Review for protection and comments, View for how the window behaves. Plus the map of the whole ribbon.
The tab map
Every tab answers to an Alt letter. This is the index — the altnav guide teaches the sequences that continue past it.
| Tab (Alt key) | What lives there |
|---|---|
| File (Alt+F) | Save, print, export, options |
| Home (Alt+H) | Formatting and everyday editing |
| Insert (Alt+N) | Pivots, tables, charts, links |
| Page Layout (Alt+P) | Print setup and scaling |
| Formulas (Alt+M) | Names, auditing, calculation |
| Data (Alt+A) | Imports, sort/filter, cleanup |
| Review (Alt+R) | Comments, protection, spelling |
| View (Alt+W) | Freeze, zoom, window layout |
Page Layout (Alt+P)
Page Setup holds margins, orientation, paper size, Print Area (print only the block you select), Breaks, and Print Titles — repeat header rows on every printed page. Scale to Fit shrinks the printout to a page count: Width 1 is the one-setting fix for reports that spill columns onto extra pages. Sheet Options can print gridlines and headings; Themes restyles fonts and colors workbook-wide.
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Print Area ▾ | Print only the selected range from now on |
| Print Titles | Repeat chosen rows/columns on every page |
| Scale to Fit | Force the printout to N pages wide / tall |
Review (Alt+R)
Spelling (F7) checks cell text. Comments are threaded conversations with @mentions and replies — built for shared workbooks; Notes are the classic yellow stickies with the red corner triangle. Protect Sheet stops edits to locked cells (all cells are locked by default — unlock the input cells via Ctrl+1 ▸ Protection first); Protect Workbook stops sheet adds, deletes, and renames; Allow Edit Ranges carves password-protected exceptions.
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| New Comment | Threaded, @mentionable discussion on a cell |
| Notes ▾ | Old-style yellow annotations |
| Protect Sheet / Workbook | Lock cells / lock sheet structure |
View (Alt+W)
Workbook Views switch between Normal, Page Break Preview (draggable blue print-break lines), and Page Layout. The Show checkboxes toggle gridlines, the formula bar, and headings — unchecking gridlines is the quickest 'finished dashboard' polish. Freeze Panes (Alt+W, F, F) keeps headers visible while you scroll. New Window plus Arrange All shows two sheets of one workbook side by side; Split divides one window into scrollable panes.
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Freeze Panes ▾ | Pin rows/columns above-left of the cursor |
| Page Break Preview | See and drag where printed pages split |
| Gridlines checkbox | The instant dashboard cleanup |
| New Window + Arrange All | Two views of one workbook at once |