Workbooks and Worksheets

What about those “tabs” at the bottom of the spreadsheet screen above the status bar? A Workbook is Microsoft Excel's standard file type and represents the electronic equivalent of a three-ring binder. Inside Excel workbooks you will find sheets, such as worksheets (spreadsheet data) and chart sheets (spreadsheet data graphically represented). Each sheet's name appears as a tab at the bottom of the workbook, and by default, they are named Sheet1, Sheet2, …, etc.

By default, Microsoft Excel versions 97 through 2001 start you with three blank worksheets in your workbook. Microsoft Excel 5 started you off with 16 worksheets.

In most cases, you will create an Excel file (a workbook) that contains only one worksheet with the remaining 2 worksheets “empty”; you may delete these unused sheets if you wish.

In some cases, however, you may need to create a workbook with multiple worksheets that are linked so that data automatically “moves” from one sheet to the next. In this case, you will need to add worksheets to your workbook.

You can:

• move or copy sheets between workbooks
• rearrange sheets within a workbook
• add sheets
• delete sheets
• rename sheets to something more meaningful that Sheet1, etc.

Moving or Copying a Sheet(s) between Workbooks

• select the sheet tab(s)
• choose Edit Move or Copy Sheet …
  • select the workbook (another Excel file) from the scroll box under [To Book]
  • check the <Create a Copy> box if you wish to copy this sheet; leave it unchecked if you wish to move the sheet
• click <OK>

Rearranging Sheet(s) within a Workbook

• select the sheet tab(s)
• choose Edit Move or Copy Sheet …
  • select its new location from the scroll box under [Before Sheet]
  • check the <Create a Copy> box if you wish to copy this sheet; leave it unchecked if you wish to move the sheet
• click <OK>

Adding a Sheet(s)

• choose Insert WorkSheet
• the new worksheet will be inserted to the left of the selected tab
• repeat as necessary
• since the number of tabs selected equals the number of worksheets to be inserted, you can quickly add multiple sheets at once by first selecting the correct number of tabs, that is, to add five new worksheets, first select five tabs!

Deleting a Sheet (s)

• select the sheet tab(s)
• choose Edit Delete Sheet …

Renaming a sheet

• Double-click on the sheet tab then
  • Microsoft Excel 97 Windows: enter the new name in the dialog box
  • Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh, Excel 2000 Windows, Excel 2001 Macintosh, Excel XP Windows, or Excel X Macintosh:
    • the name on the sheet tab is selected, simply retype a new name

Copyright©2003
last updated August 12, 2003