Adding tabs in excel

Hold down SHIFT, and then select the same number of existing sheet tabs of the worksheets that you want to insert in the open workbook. For example, if you want to add three new worksheets, select three sheet tabs of existing worksheets. On the Home tab, in the Cells group, click Insert, and then click Insert Sheet.

How do I create multiple tabs in Excel?

Press and hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard. Select the next worksheet you want in the group. Continue to select worksheets until all of the worksheets you want to group are selected, then release the Ctrl key. The worksheets are now grouped.

How do you insert a tab?

Insert or add tab stops

1. Go to Home and select the Paragraph dialog launcher .
2. Select Tabs.
3. Type a measurement in the Tab stop position field.
4. Select an Alignment.
5. Select a Leader if you want one.
6. Select Set.
7. Select OK.

Can you group tabs in Excel?

To group worksheets together, press and hold the Ctrl key and click each worksheet you want to group together at the bottom of the Excel window. Grouped worksheets appear with a white background, while unselected worksheets appear in gray.

How do I show tabs in Excel?

First ensure that the Show sheet tabs is enabled. To do this, For all other Excel versions, click File > Options > Advanced—in under Display options for this workbook—and then ensure that there is a check in the Show sheet tabs box.

What is Insert tab in Microsoft Excel?

The Insert tab contains various items that you may want to insert into a document. These items include such things as tables, word art, hyperlinks, symbols, charts, signature line, date & time, shapes, header, footer, text boxes, links, boxes, equations and so on.

Where is the Layout tab in Excel?

The default location of the Layout tab is second from the left immediately following the Home tab. If your Ribbon isn’t displayed at all go to Excel> Preferences> Ribbon & restore the check for Turn on the Ribbon.

Can you put excel tabs in a folder?

Export the Contents of a Folder
To export a folder: On the left Navigation Bar, click Browse. Right-click the name of the folder that you want to export and select the option that you want to use:The workbook will contain one tab per sheet in the folder.

How do I add a tab character in Excel?

How to Insert a Tab Character In a Cell

1. Open your Excel workbook and navigate to the worksheet you are working with.
2. Press the “Ctrl,” “Alt,” and “Tab” keys simultaneously and see if a tab character is added to the active cell.

How do I activate the tab key in Excel?

Tab Key Jumps a Screen at a Time

1. Display the Excel Options dialog box.
2. At the left side of the dialog box click Advanced.
3. Scroll through the list of available options until you see the Lotus Compatibility options.
4. Clear the Transition Navigation Keys check box.
5. Click on OK.

How do I insert Table Tools tab layout?

Design tab

1. Click in the table that you want to format.
2. Under Table Tools, click the Design tab.
3. In the Table Formats group, rest the pointer over each table style until you find a style that you want to use. Note: To see more styles, click the More arrow.
4. Click the style to apply it to the table.

How do I add a page tab in Excel?

Method A:

1. Click the Page Layout tab in the Ribbon.
2. Go to the Page Setup group, and then you will find that some common used setups, such as margins, backgrounds and size are listed in this group.
3. Then a “Page Setup” box appears, and you can choose the settings based on your need.

How do you insert a tab in a table cell?

1. Place the text cursor in the cell where you want to insert the tab character, using either the mouse or the keyboard.
2. Hold down the “Ctrl” key and press “Tab” to insert the tab character.
3. Adjust the position of the tab stops using the ruler, if necessary (see Resources).

Why can’t I tab between cells in Excel?

To use the arrow keys to move between cells, you must turn SCROLL LOCK off. To do that, press the Scroll Lock key (labeled as ScrLk) on your keyboard. If your keyboard doesn’t include this key, you can turn off SCROLL LOCK by using the On-Screen Keyboard.

How do I switch between tabs in Excel using keyboard?

You can move worksheets with the keyboard by using Ctrl+PgUp and Ctrl+PgDown. Ctrl+PgUp moves toward the first worksheet in the workbook and Ctrl+PgDown moves toward the last. However, when you reach the first or last worksheet, you have to switch directions: Excel doesn’t wrap to the opposite end of the workbook.

What is Layout tab?

The Layout tab provides access to page display and layout options. These include page orientation and AutoFit, which is a feature that limits the width of columns in a report to be no wider than the largest value in each column. These options allow you to change the size or orientation of your report.

What is the difference between Layout tab and Format tab?

Answer: 1. Layout Tab–The Page Layout Tab holds all the options that allow you to arrange your document pages just the way you want them. You can set margins, apply themes, control of page orientation and size, add sections and line breaks, display line numbers, and set paragraph indentation and lines.

Is this article up to date?

Do you need to add a new sheet tab to your Excel workbook? This post is going to show you all the ways that you can insert a new sheet in Excel!

Excel allows you to add multiple sheets within a workbook. This is a great way to organize your spreadsheet solutions as you can separate your inputs, data, calculations, reports, and visuals into different sheets.

Organizing your workbooks with sheets can also make the spreadsheet easier to navigate for any user.

How can you add new sheets to an Excel workbook? Follow this post to find out all the ways to add sheet tabs in Excel. You’ll even learn how to add multiple sheets based on a list!

Add a New Sheet with the New Sheet Button

The quickest and easiest way to insert a new sheet in Excel is using the New Sheet button located to the right of the current sheet tabs.

Left click on the plus sign icon to the right of the sheet tabs and Excel will create a new blank sheet in your workbook!

Add a New Sheet from the Home Tab

Adding a new sheet can also be done from the Excel ribbon.

You might think this action would be located in the Insert tab, but it will actually be found in the Home tab.

Follow these steps to insert a new sheet from the Home tab.

1. Go to the Home tab.

1. Click on the lower part of the Insert command found in the Cells section.
2. Choose the Insert Sheet option from the menu.

This will create a new sheet in your workbook.

Add a New Sheet with a Keyboard Shortcut

Good news for anyone who prefers to navigate Excel with their keyboard as much as possible! There is a dedicated keyboard shortcut for adding a new sheet.

Press Shift + F11 on your keyboard to insert a new sheet.

Add a New Sheet with Excel Options

When you create a new Excel workbook, the number of sheets it comes with will be determined by your Excel Options settings.

You can change this default so that any time you create a new workbook, it will have your desired number of blank sheets available.

The Excel Options menu allows you to customize your Excel experience with various app and workbook settings.

Follow these steps to adjust the default number of sheets in a workbook.

1. Go to the File tab.
2. Select Excel Options in the lower left.
3. Go to the General section of the Excel Options menu.
4. Scroll down to the When creating new workbooks section.
5. Change the number in the Including this many sheets input.
6. Press the OK button.

The next time you create a new Excel workbook, it will have your desired number of blank sheets.

💡 Tip: You can test out this new setting by pressing Ctrl + N to create a new workbook.

Add Multiple New Sheets with a Pivot Table

Did you know you can create multiple sheets from a list in the grid by using a pivot table?

This is a hidden gem for when you need to quickly create many sheets.

For example, suppose you need to create new sheets for each US state or each product that your company sells. This would be a tedious process with the previous methods.

If you have these sheet names as a list inside the grid, then you can create a pivot table based on this list and use the Show Report Filter Pages feature to generate the sheets for you.

This example shows a list of US states which can then be used to generate sheets with those US state names.

Follow these steps to automatically generate sheets from a list using a pivot table.

1. Create a pivot table based on your list.

💡 Tip: Check out this post to see how to insert a pivot table from your list.

1. Click and drag the sheet name field to the Filters area in the PivotTable Fields menu.

1. Go to the PivotTable Analyze tab.
2. Click on the Chevron icon in the Options command.
3. Choose the Show Report Filter Page option from the menu.

This will open the Show Report Filter Pages menu.

1. Select the field with your sheet names.
2. Press the OK button.

You will only see multiple field choices in the menu if you have added multiple fields to the Filters area of your pivot table.

This will create a new sheet for each unique item in your list, and each sheet will be named based on the text in your list.

Each sheet will contain a filtered version of your pivot table in cell A1. The pivot table will be filtered on the same item as the sheet name.

Add Multiple New Sheets with VBA

VBA is a great way to automate any task for Excel in the desktop app. This includes adding sheets!

You can create a VBA macro that will create new sheets based on a selected list.

Go to the Developer tab and select the Visual Basic command or press Alt + F11 to open the visual basic editor.

📝 Note: You might need to enable the Developer tab first as it is disabled by default.

Go to the Insert menu in the visual basic editor and select the Module option from the menu.

Sub AddSheets()
Dim myRange As Range
Dim sheetTest As Boolean
Set myRange = Selection

For Each c In myRange.Cells
sheetTest = False
    For Each ws In ThisWorkbook.Worksheets
        If ws.Name = c.Value Or c.Value = "" Then
            sheetTest = True
        End If
    Next ws
    If Not (sheetTest) Then
          Sheets.Add.Name = c.Value
    End If
Next c
End Sub

Paste the above code into the new module.

This code will loop through the selected range in your workbook and will create a new sheet for each cell. If the sheet name already exists, then this item will be skipped.

Now you will be able to select any range in your workbook and run the VBA code to automatically create multiple sheets.

Add Multiple New Sheets with Office Scripts

Another way you can automate the creation of your sheets is by using Office Scripts.

Office Scripts is the JavaScript language for automating tasks in Excel online. You will need to be using Excel on the web with a business Microsoft 365 account as this feature isn’t available otherwise.

Open Excel online and go to the Automate tab and select the New Script option. This will open the Office Script editor on the right side.

function main(workbook: ExcelScript.Workbook) {

	//Create an array with the values in the selected range
	let selectedRange = workbook.getSelectedRange();
	let selectedValues = selectedRange.getValues();
	//Get dimensions of selected range
	let rowHeight = selectedRange.getRowCount();
	let colWidth = selectedRange.getColumnCount();

	//Loop through each item in the selected range
	for (let i = 0; i < rowHeight; i++) {
		for (let j = 0; j < colWidth; j++) {
			try {
				workbook.addWorksheet(selectedValues[i][j]);
			}
			catch (e) {
				//do nothing
			};
		};
	};
};

Add the above code to the editor and press the Save script button.

This code will loop through the selected range on your sheet and create a new sheet for each item in the range.

Now you select a range in your sheet and press the Run button in the Code Editor. This will run the code and create the required sheets in your workbook!

Add Multiple New Sheets with Power Automate

Microsoft Power Automate is a cloud-based service that makes it easy for end users to create and run automated workflows.

Users can build workflows in a matter of minutes, without any need for coding or complex configuration with the intuitive user interface.

The service can be used to automate a wide range of tasks, including sending emails, copying files, and creating records in databases.

Power Automate is part of the Microsoft Power Platform, which also includes Power BI and Power Apps. Together, these products provide a powerful end-to-end solution for business process automation.

But the best part is it’s available for use as part of any Microsoft 365 subscription!

You can use Power Automate to create sheets from a list inside an Excel Table. In this example, the desired sheet names are in an Excel Table with a column named Names.

📝 Note: This Excel file will need to be saved in either SharePoint or OneDrive in order to work with Power Automate.

Go to the Power Automate Portal and log in with your Microsoft credentials.

Then go to the Create tab and select an Instant cloud flow. This will allow you to run the flow manually with a button in the Power Automate portal.

Give your Flow a name then select the Manually trigger a flow option and then press the Create button.

This will open the flow builder and you can add steps to your workflow.

1. Add a List rows present in a table step and then select the relevant file and table location in the various fields.

This action will read all the items in your table of sheet names. This will be used in the next step to create and name new worksheets.

1. Add a Create worksheet step and select the same file.
2. Select the Names field from the previous List rows present in a table action.

When you add the Names field to the Name input in the Create worksheet step, it will automatically add this step into an Apply to each action. This way a worksheet will be created for each item in your list of sheet names.

Press the Save button to save your flow and it will be ready to run!

Go to the My flows menu, select the Cloud flows tab, and then press the Run button for your flow.

You don’t even have to have the file open, and the sheets will be added to your workbook!

Conclusions

Most of your workbooks will need more than one sheet, so learning how to add sheets in Excel is essential.

There are manual ways to create new sheets such as the New Sheet button, the Home tab, and a keyboard shortcut. There are all great methods when you only need to add a few sheets.

There are also several methods for adding sheets in an automated manner based on a list! VBA, Office Scripts, Power Automate, and even pivot tables can all be used for situations where you need to add a lot of sheets.

Which method do you prefer for adding sheets to your workbooks? Do you have any other tips for this? Let me know in the comments section below!

Every Microsoft Excel workbook contains at least one worksheet. You can create multiple worksheets to help organize your data, and each sheet is shown as a tab at the bottom of the Excel window. These tabs make it easier to manage your spreadsheets.

You may have a workbook that contains worksheets for each year for company sales, each department for your retail business, or each month for your bills.

To efficiently manage more than one spreadsheet in a single workbook, we have some tips to help you work with tabs in Excel.

Insert a New Tab

To add another Excel worksheet to your workbook, click the tab after which you want to insert the worksheet. Then, click the plus sign icon on the right of the tab bar.

The new tab is numbered with the next sequential sheet number, even if you’ve inserted the tab in another location. In our example screenshot, our new sheet is inserted after Sheet3, but is numbered Sheet6.

Rename a Tab

New tabs are named Sheet1, Sheet2, etc. in sequential order. If you have multiple worksheets in your workbook, it’s helpful to name each of them to help you organize and find your data.

To rename a tab, either double-click on the tab name or right-click on it and select Rename. Type a new name and press Enter.

Keep in mind that each tab must have a unique name.

Color a Tab

Along with renaming tabs, you can apply color to them so that they stand out from the rest. Right-click the tab and put your cursor over Tab Color. Select a color from the pop-out window. You’ll notice a nice selection of Theme Colors, Standard Colors, and More Colors if you want to customize the color.

If you have a lot of tabs, they may not all display at once, depending on the size of your Excel window. There are a couple of ways you can scroll through your tabs.

On Windows, you’ll see three horizontal dots on one or both ends of the tab bar. Click the three dots on one end to scroll through the tabs in that direction.

You can also click the right and left arrows on the left side of the tab bar to scroll through the tabs. These arrows also have other uses, as indicated by the popup that displays when you move your cursor over one of them.

On Mac, you’ll only see the arrows on the left side of the tab bar for scrolling.

View More Tabs on the Tab Bar

On Windows, the scrollbar at the bottom of the Excel window takes up room that could be used for your worksheet tabs. If you have a lot of tabs, and you want to see more of them at once, you can widen the tab bar.

Hover your cursor over the three vertical dots to the left of the scrollbar, until it turns into two vertical lines with arrows. Click and drag the three dots to the right to make the tab bar wider. You’ll start seeing more of your tabs display.

Need to print your Excel sheet? We show you how to format the document to print your spreadsheet on a single page.

Copy or Move a Tab

You can make an exact copy of a tab in the current workbook or in another open workbook, which is useful if you need to start with the same data. You can also move a tab to another location in the same workbook or a different open workbook.

Right-click on the tab and select Move or Copy.

In the Move or Copy dialog box, the currently active workbook is selected by default in the To book dropdown list. If you want to copy or move the tab to a different workbook, make sure that workbook is open and select it from the list. Remember, you can only copy or move tabs to open workbooks.

In the Before sheet list box, select the sheet (tab) before which you want to insert the tab. If you’d rather move or copy the tab to the end, pick Move to End.

Copying a Tab

If you’re copying the tab, and not moving it, make sure to check the Create a copy box. If you don’t check the Create a copy box, the tab will be moved to the chosen location instead of copied.

The copied tab will have the same name as the original tab followed by a version number. You can rename the tab as we described in the Rename a Tab section above.

Moving a Tab

If you move the tab, the name will remain the same; a version number is not added.

If you only want to move a tab within the same workbook, you can manually drag it to the new location. Click and hold the tab until you see a triangle on the upper-left corner of the tab. Then, drag the tab until the triangle points to where you want it and then release it.

Delete a Tab

You can delete worksheets (tabs) in your workbook, even those containing data. You will lose the data on a deleted Excel worksheet, and it might cause errors if other worksheets refer to data on the deleted worksheet. So be sure that you actually want to remove the sheet.

Since a workbook must contain at least one spreadsheet, you can’t delete a sheet if it’s the only one in your workbook.

To delete an Excel worksheet, right-click on the tab for the sheet and select Delete.

If the worksheet you’re deleting contains data, a dialog box displays. Click Delete, if you’re sure you want to delete the data on the worksheet.

Hide a Tab

You may want to keep a worksheet and its data in your workbook but not see the sheet. You can take care of this easily by hiding a tab instead of deleting it.

Right-click the tab and choose Hide from the shortcut menu. You’ll see the tab and the sheet disappear from the workbook view.

To make a hidden tab reappear, right-click any tab in the workbook and select Unhide. If you have more than one hidden tab, pick the one you want to see and click OK.

Keep Your Excel Data Organized

Tabs are a great way to keep your Excel data organized and make it easy to find. You can customize the tabs to organize your data in the best way that suits your needs.

You can also speed up navigation and data entry on your worksheets using keyboard shortcuts, as well as use these tips to save time in Excel.