Animated Menus

One of the ways that Excel attempts to add spice to life is through menu animation. Normally menu animation is turned off, but if you have some CPU cycles to spare, you may want to give it a try.

If you are using a version of Excel prior to Excel 2007, simply choose Customize from the Tools menu, and then click on the Options tab. The Menu Animations drop-down list has these possible settings:

• System Default. This is (oddly enough) the default; there is no menu animation.
• Random. Results in a menu using the Unfold or Slide method, at random.
• Unfold. The menu opens up from top to bottom and left to right.
• Slide. The menu "slides" onto the screen, progressing from top to bottom.
• Fade. The menu "fades" in, from light to dark.

Make your selection, then click on the Close button.

None of these settings are available in Excel 2007. Why? Because the Excel 2007 interface doesn't rely on menus, it relies on the ribbon. Thus, settings as to how menus should behave would be extraneous in Excel 2007.