What is compact controls in Google Sheets?
Compact Controls is part of the Google Sheets interface: menus, toolbars, side panels, and view options around the grid. Knowing where a feature lives saves time more than memorizing every shortcut.
When to use it
Use menu and UI vocabulary when teaching beginners where to click or when documenting internal workflows.
When to skip it
Skip UI tours when your team already standardized on keyboard shortcuts and named ranges.
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Explore tab
The Explore tab is a sidebar panel that analyzes your selected data and suggests charts, pivot tables, formatting, and quick questions. Google Sheets opens it from the star icon or when you select a table range. It is a fast way to visualize patterns without writing formulas first.
Read guide →Sidebar
A sidebar is a vertical panel docked beside the spreadsheet grid. The Explore tab is a built-in sidebar. With Apps Script you can show a custom sidebar from HTML to build wizards, search tools, and forms without leaving the sheet. Add-ons from the Marketplace often register sidebar entries under Extensions.
Read guide →cell formatting
Cell formatting controls how values display without necessarily changing the stored value underneath. Currency, percent, date, and plain text formats keep reports readable and prevent Sheets from auto-converting IDs into dates. Good formatting is the difference between a sheet leadership trusts and one they argue with.
Read guide →Done reading about Compact controls?
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