One comment about things you turn off via Tools/Options - if you turn your formula and status bar off, they do not automatically turn back on - you can make them visible on a BeforeClose statement (that's how I handle it). You can also control the scroll area with the VBA statement SCROLLAREA.
One of the other "tricks" I use to give an Excel more of a presentation look is to create an opening cover page and add simple GOTO buttons to take the user to specific worksheets or sections of worksheets. This way you can turn off tabs and the column and row headers. (put a "return" button on the pages to get the user back to the menu)
Keep working on this, it is possible to make things look very professional in Excel. One issue is with security - this is limited in Excel. If you trust your end users though, it's not much of a problem.
Good Luck!