Using Excel Search, Help, and Community Tools

Key Takeaways

It would be difficult to memorize everything Excel offers and its features are constantly changing. Luckily, Excel comes with a few different help tools so that you can find answers to any questions. If you're not sure how to do something in Excel, or you're looking for a command or a suggestion, you can click the search box in the title bar of your workbook and type a word or phrase related to what you want to do. As you type, the search feature will present different options and recommendations related to the topic you have entered. Depending on the topic you have entered, the options and recommendations can include the best available action, alternative actions, searching the workbook for the term, opening the Microsoft help task pane, or a link to a definition of the term. To access advanced help options, click the help tab in the ribbon. The help tab contains two groups, the help group and the community group. Clicking the help command in the help group will launch the help task pane to the right of your worksheet. Typing a question or a phrase in the search field will present one or more help topics that present you with a possible solution. Clicking on one of the options will display the selected solution as well as the other most relevant results of your search. You can also click show more to display other less relevant results. Here's a quick overview of the other commands in the help group and community group and the resources they provide. The contact support command will launch the help task pane and provide information on how to access support based on your type of software license. The feedback command will launch the feedback task pane and present you with options to submit feedback to Microsoft. The show training command will launch the help task pane and present options for built-in Microsoft Excel training. The what's new command will launch the what's new task pane and display information on new features in the Excel application. The community command will launch a browser window and open the Microsoft Excel community homepage which gives access to a wealth of information created by a user community. The Excel blog command will launch a browser window and open the Microsoft blog homepage where you access a wide array of Excel related user generated posts. And the suggestive feature command will launch the suggestive feature task pane where you can submit suggestions and ideas for the next version of Excel.