6 Excel UI changes you need to make before starting your next spreadsheet

Avoid Excel friction and save time by customizing the interface, shortcuts, highlights, and formula editing.

6 Excel UI changes you need to make before starting your next spreadsheet

[Microsoft Excel logo surrounded by blue gear icons.]

Credit: Lucas Gouveia/How-To Geek

Tony Phillips

Mar 1, 2026, 2:30 PM EST

Tony Phillips is an experienced Microsoft Office user with a dual-honors degree in Linguistics and Hispanic Studies. Prior to starting with How-to Geek in January 2024, he worked as a document producer, data manager, and content creator for over ten years, and loves making spreadsheets and documents in his spare time.

Tony is also an academic proofreader, experienced in reading, editing, and formatting over 3 million words of personal statements, resumes, reference letters, research proposals, and dissertations. Before joining How-To Geek, Tony formatted and wrote documents for legal firms, including contracts, Wills, and Powers of Attorney.

Tony is obsessed with Microsoft Office! He will find any reason to create a spreadsheet, exploring ways to add complex formulas and discover new ways to make data tick. He also takes pride in producing Word documents that look the part. He has worked as a data manager in a secondary school in the UK and has years of experience in the classroom with Microsoft PowerPoint. He loves to encounter problems in Microsoft Office and use his expertise and legal-level training to find solutions.

Outside of the Microsoft world, Tony is a keen dog owner and lover, football fan, astrophotographer, gardener, and golfer.

If you're still using Excel's default layout, you're making things harder than they need to be. The software's interface is surprisingly flexible if you know where to look, and making just a few tweaks can turn a standard spreadsheet app into a personalized number cruncher.

So, before you dive into your next project, take a few minutes to tune your workspace. Make these changes once, and every future workbook will benefit.

Availability notes correct as of March 2026.

###
Enable Dark Mode

####
Get a more comfortable view for long spreadsheet sessions

[Laptop showing Microsoft Excel in full dark mode.]

Credit: Tony Phillips/How-To Geek

Availability: Microsoft 365 for Windows. Other versions support dark themes (ribbon only), but not full canvas Dark Mode.

Staring at a blinding white screen at 8AM is a tough way to start the day. I find that switching to a darker interface reduces eye strain during long spreadsheet sessions.

Click File and select Account in the bottom-left corner.

Expand the Office Theme drop-down menu and click Black.

Head back to the Excel grid, and in the View tab on the ribbon, click Switch Modes to toggle the spreadsheet cells from light to dark.

Dark mode only affects how the UI appears on screen, not your printouts.

[The How-To Geek website in dark mode shown on a monitor in a dimly lit room.]

I Use Dark Mode Everywhere, and I'm Not Going Back

I see a phone with light mode, and I want it painted black.

Ismar Hrnjicevic

###
Activate and modify the Quick Access Toolbar

####
Put your most-used tools one click away

[Laptop screen showing the QAT in Microsoft Excel.]

Credit: Tony Phillips/How-To Geek

Availability: All desktop versions of Excel from 2007 onward.

Whether you like the modern ribbon layout is one thing, but I think we can all agree that "tab hunting" is the ultimate productivity killer. The Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) lets you pin your favorite commands so they're always visible.

Right-click anywhere on the ribbon and select Show Quick Access Toolbar. If you don't see this option, it's already enabled.

Right-click any tool you use frequently and select Add to Quick Access Toolbar.

Click the QAT's down arrow and select More Commands to reorder your icons.

###
Build a personalized ribbon tab

####
Create a command center tailored to your workflow

[Laptop showing a customized tab on the Excel ribbon.]

Credit: Tony Phillips/How-To Geek

Availability: All desktop versions of Excel from 2013 onward.

If you find yourself bouncing between tabs just to finish one task, you should definitely build your own. Creating a custom tab lets you group your "daily drivers" into one place—think of it as a curated toolbox with only the wrenches you actually use.

Right-click anywhere on the ribbon and select Customize the Ribbon.

Click the New Tab button at the bottom of the right-hand list. Excel automatically creates a New Tab (Custom) with a New Group (Custom) inside it. You can add more groups to the new tab if you want to.

Select the new tab and Rename it to reflect how you plan to use it. Do the same with the groups.

Click and drag commands from the left-hand list into the appropriate custom groups.

With your custom tab selected, click the Up Arrow on the far right to move it to the top (meaning it's in the leftmost position on the ribbon). Once it's there, the arrow turns gray.

If you can't find a command in the left-hand list, expand the drop-down at the top and select All Commands.

[3D illustration of the Microsoft Excel logo in front of an empty spreadsheet.]

7 settings changes that make Excel less annoying

Don't let the default settings get in your way.

Tony Phillips

###
Turn on Focus Cell

####
Stop losing your place in massive datasets

[Laptop screen showing Focus Cell activated in Microsoft Excel.]

Credit: Tony Phillips/How-To Geek

Availability: Microsoft 365 (Windows and Mac) and Excel for the web.

We've all been there: you're looking at row 452, you glance away for a second, and suddenly you find yourself entering data into row 453. It's an absolute nightmare for data integrity. The Focus Cell feature is a total game-changer because it acts like a digital ruler, highlighting the exact row and column of your active cell so you never have to squint at the headers again.

In the View tab, click Focus Cell to activate the highlighting.

Expand the Focus Cell drop-down menu to change the Focus Cell Color.

Check Show Auto-Highlight in the drop-down to make the Find and Replace tool use these highlights.

Press Alt > W > E > F to toggle Focus Cell on and off instantly.

####
Get instant answers without writing a formula

[Laptop screen showing the status bar in Microsoft Excel.]

Credit: Tony Phillips/How-To Geek

Availability: All desktop versions of Excel from 2016 onward. Limited options in Excel for the web.

The status bar at the bottom of the Excel window is one of the program's most underrated features. It's split into two zones: the left side tracks your current state (like Cell Mode or Accessibility status), while the right side provides real-time AutoCalculate data. By default, this AutoCalculate segment only shows a few basics like Average, Count, and Sum, but you can turn it into a metadata powerhouse that lets you audit your data without writing a single function.

The AutoCalculate data only appears when you select populated cells. Otherwise, the right side of the status bar appears blank.

To get started, right-click anywhere on the status bar at the bottom of your screen.

[The status bar right-click menu in Microsoft Excel.]

You'll see a list of settings you can toggle—here's what you should activate and why:

Numerical Count: Activate this to see how many cells in your selection actually contain numbers. This is a lifesaver for spotting numbers stored as text that might be breaking your formulas.

[...]

Original source