Using controls on worksheets

Where to find the controls

Excel 2007 and 2010

In Excel 2007 and 2010, the form controls and control toolbox controls are slightly hidden. First of all, you need to show the "Developer" tab of the ribbon. Here is how that's done:

Click the Office button and select "Excel options..." (for Excel 2010: Click File, Options and then locate this option on the "Customize ribbon" tab).
Click the "Popular" tab and check the box next to "Show Developer tab in the ribbon":

Fig 1: Showing the Developer tab on the ribbon (Excel 2010).
After you've checked the box and clicked OK, you will find a new tab called "Developer" on your ribbon. This tab houses a group called "Controls", which in turn contains a button "Insert". The dropdown list shows all available controls:

Fig. 2: The controls on the Developer tab.

Excel 97-2003

In older Excel versions the controls are housed on two toolbars; the "Forms" toolbar and the "Control toolbox" toolbar. You can show both toolbars using the menu "View", "Toolbars":

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Fig. 3: Access to the controls toolbars in Excel 97-2003.

After turning on these two toolbars they are shown:

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Fig. 4: The control toolbars in Excel 97-2003.

Comments

All comments about this page:

Comment by: kanwaljit (12/29/2009 7:48:20 AM)

Hi Jan,

Excellent article to say the least. Very helpful for an average excel user like me. Wish I could download in pdf, so as to get a print and read whenever I like.

Thanks a lot !
Regards
Kanwalijt

Comment by: Jeff Page (1/31/2010 9:23:03 AM)

As a person who routinely prints articles for reading and/or filing, it is hindered when articles are spread over multiple pages. An option for a printer-friendly version (like PCMag.com), would also allow someone to save to PDF the entire article.

Thanks. Great site.

Comment by: Jan Karel Pieterse (1/31/2010 10:51:43 AM)

Hi Jeff,

Thanks you for your comment.

I can see the benefit of having all on one page in case you want to print it.
In general, web experts often advise NOT to make pages on websites very long, but rather spread them across multiple pages. This of course conflicts with the ease of printing an entire article.

Comment by: Del (5/13/2011 10:27:20 AM)

Is there a way to customize the Excel 2010 toolbar so that it duplicates the toolbar used in Excel 2003 version?

Learning how this "ribbon" works is quite confusing to someone who has used Excel 2003 for years. Just to do a sort is a challenge.

Looking forward to your response for a solution to my problem.

Best regards,
Del

Comment by: Jan Karel Pieterse (5/15/2011 3:21:48 AM)

Hi Del,

You cannot duplicate Excel 2003 toolbars in 2007. The closest option is to use the QAT.
There are third party tools that mimick the 2003 interface, but I'd suggest you to keep using the ribbon, you'll get used to it. It has its quirks, but so did the 2003 UI.
What helps is that most 2003 menu shortcuts still work.

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