A single workbook can hold many sheets, each one like a separate page in the same binder, which is useful for keeping related information organised without opening several files. By the end of this page you will be able to add, rename, colour, move and delete sheet tabs, and refer to another sheet from a formula.
Along the bottom of the Excel window you will see one or more small labelled tabs, usually starting with Sheet1. Each tab is a separate sheet within the same workbook, with its own grid of cells. This is useful when you want to keep, say, January, February and March on separate pages of the same file rather than in three different files.
- Double-click a tab to rename it
- Drag tabs to reorder them
To add a new sheet, click the small plus icon next to the existing tabs. To rename a tab, double-click it, type a new name, and press Enter; clear names such as January or Totals make navigating a busy workbook much easier than remembering what Sheet3 is meant to contain. Right-clicking a tab opens a menu with further options, including Tab Color to give it a colour, Move or Copy to reposition it, and Delete to remove it entirely. You can also simply click and drag a tab left or right along the row to reorder it.
Try it yourself
Click the plus icon next to the existing sheet tab to add a new sheet.
This creates a fresh, blank page within the same workbook.
Double-click the new tab's name, type 'Summary', and press Enter.
A clear name is far easier to find later than a generic Sheet2.
Right-click the Summary tab, choose Tab Color, and pick a colour.
Colour-coding tabs helps you spot important sheets at a glance in a workbook with many pages.
Click and drag the Summary tab to a different position along the row of tabs.
Reordering tabs lets you put the most important or most used sheet, often a summary, in a sensible position such as first.
On your original sheet, type =Summary!A1 into an empty cell, after first typing something into A1 on the Summary sheet.
This shows how to pull a value from another sheet into a formula, using the sheet's name followed by an exclamation mark before the cell reference.
Words people use
Using several well-named, colour-coded sheets inside one workbook keeps related information together without cluttering any single page, and referring between sheets means you never need to retype a figure that already exists elsewhere in the same file.
Check yourself
If you can say yes to each of these, you are ready for the next lesson.
- I can add a new sheet and rename its tab.
- I can give a tab a colour and reorder tabs by dragging.
- I can delete a sheet, knowing it cannot easily be undone.
- I can refer to a cell on another sheet using SheetName!CellReference.