Excel: Icon, Dropdowns, and Hybrids

This page is an advertiser-supported excerpt of the book, Power Excel 2010-2013 from MrExcel - 567 Excel Mysteries Solved. If you like this topic, please consider buying the entire e-book.


Problem: The ribbon introduces several new types of controls that you've never used in Excel 2003.

In this figure, the Table and Picture icon will invoke a command. The Shapes and Screenshot icons are dropdowns that lead to a flyout menu.

  1. A mix of dropdowns, icons, and hybrids.

    However, the PivotTable icon is actually two icons. The top half will start a pivot table. The bottom half leads to a flyout. You can't really tell which icons are a hybrid of icon and dropdown until you hover over the icon with your mouse.

  2. When you hover, a horizontal line divides the icon.

    The other new type of control in the ribbon is a gallery with three arrows at the right side. The first and second arrows in the gallery will scroll through choices one row at a time.

    If you click the bottom arrow, the gallery will fly open to reveal all of the choices.

  3. Galleries have three arrows on the right edge.

    Additional Details: Several icons have an upper (icon) half and a lower (dropdown) half:

    • The Paste icon on the Home tab
    • The Insert icon on the Home tab
    • The Delete icon on the Home tab
    • The Pivot Table icon on the Insert tab
    • The AutoSum icon on the Formulas tab
    • The Macros icon on the View tab

  4. Use bottom arrow to open the gallery.