How to tabs in excel

If you can’t see the worksheet tabs at the bottom of your Excel workbook, browse the table below to find the potential cause and solution.

Note: The image in this article are from Excel 2016. Your view might be slightly different if you have a different version, but the functionality is the same (unless otherwise noted).

Cause	Solution
The window sizing is keeping the tabs hidden.	If you restore multiple windows in Excel, ensure that the windows are not overlapping. Perhaps the top of an Excel window is covering the worksheet tabs of another window. The status bar has been moved all the way up to the Formula Bar. Tabs can also disappear if your computer screen resolution is higher than that of the person who last saved the workbook. Try maximizing the window to reveal the tabs. Simply double-click the window title bar. If you still don’t see the tabs, click View > Arrange All > Tiled > OK.
The Show sheet tabs setting is turned off.	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.
The horizontal scroll bar obscures the tabs.	Hover the mouse pointer at the edge of the scrollbar until you see the double-headed arrow (see the figure). Click-and-drag the arrow to the right, until you see the complete tab name and any other tabs.
The worksheet itself is hidden.	To unhide a worksheet, right-click on any visible tab and then click Unhide. In the Unhide dialog box, click the sheet you want to unhide and then click OK.

Need more help?

You can always ask an expert in the Excel Tech Community or get support in the Answers community.

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?

Bottom line: Learn time saving tips and shortcuts for selecting and copying worksheet tabs.  Includes a few simple VBA macros.

Skill level: Beginner

Tips for Navigating Worksheet Tabs

If you work with Excel files that contain a lot of sheets, then you know how time consuming it can be to work with the tabs.  So in this post I share a few quick tips and shortcuts to save time with navigating your workbook.

#1 Copy Worksheets with Ctrl+Drag

This is one of my favorite shortcuts that every Excel user should know.  The quickest way to make a duplicate copy of a sheet is using the Ctrl+Drag method.  Here are the steps.

1. Left-click and hold on the sheet you want to copy.
2. Press and hold the Ctrl key.  A plus symbol will appear in the sheet mouse icon.
3. Drag the sheet to the right until the down arrow appears to the right of the sheet.
4. Release the left mouse button.  Then release the Ctrl key.

I broke it out into 4 steps, but it really feels like 2 steps once you get the hang of it.  It’s much faster than right-clicking the tab and going to the Move or Copy… menu.

You can also use this technique when multiple sheets are selected.  More on that below.

If you are in need of a high-five or pat on the back (and who isn’t), then feel free to share this one with your boss and co-workers. 🙂

#2 Navigating to the First or Last Sheet

If your workbook has a lot of tabs then you might want to quickly navigate to the first or last sheet in the workbook.

In Excel 2010 and earlier this was easy.  There were dedicated buttons to scroll to the first or last sheet in the workbook.

Starting in Excel 2013 we lost the dedicated buttons to navigate to the first or last sheet.   These actions were consolidated into the sheet navigation buttons in the bottom left corner of the application window.

You now have to hold the Ctrl key when clicking the sheet navigation buttons to scroll to the first or last sheet.  You can see this tip by hovering your mouse over the buttons.

So yes, this action now requires two hands unless you have really really long fingers or use a left-handed mouse.  Something to brag about lefties…  😉

Once you have scrolled to the front/back, you can then click the first/last sheet to select it.

If you want to speed up this process, checkout my post on how to Create Keyboard Shortcuts to Select the First or Last Sheet in Excel.  This is much faster than scrolling, then selecting the first/last sheet with the mouse.

#3 Select Next or Previous Sheet

If you’re a keyboard shortcut lover, like me, here are a few shortcuts to quickly move between sheets.

The keyboard shortcut to select the next sheet is: Ctrl+Page Down

The keyboard shortcut to select the previous sheet is: Ctrl+Page Up

These are great if you are toggling back and forth between two sheets.  Just move the sheets next to each other.  You can then copy/paste or audit the sheets without having to navigate all over the workbook.

Having the right keyboard can be important for us Excel users.  Especially when you are using a laptop keyboard.  Checkout my post on Best Keyboards for Excel Keyboard Shortcuts to learn more.

#4 Select Multiple Sheets

We can use the Ctrl and Shift keys to select multiple sheets.

Hold the  Ctrl key and left-click sheet tabs to add them to the group of select sheets.

You can also hold the Shift key and left-click a sheet to select all sheets from the active sheet to the sheet you clicked.

The keyboard shortcuts to select multiple sheets are Ctrl+Shift+Page Up / Page Down. This will select the previous/next sheet. You can continue to press this shortcut to select multiple sheets.

IMPORTANT NOTE About Selecting Multiple Sheets

When multiple sheets are selected, any changes you make the active sheet will also be applied to ALL selected sheets.  This is a great time saver if you want to modify the value, formula, or formatting of specific cells on multiple sheets at the same time.

However, if you forget to ungroup the sheets (see tip #6) then you could really mess up your workbook.  I’ve done this more times than I’d like to admit.

When you have multiple sheets selected, the word “Group” appears after the file name in the header of the Excel application window.  This is not much of a warning though.  I wish the application would turn a different color, or do a better job of warning us.

If you make a lot of edits to a sheet without realizing multiple sheets are selected it can spell disaster.  Sometimes you won’t be able to undo the changes, and then have to pray that you saved the file.

#5 Select All Sheets

To select all sheets in the workbook, right-click any tab and choose Select All Sheets.

The same rule applies here.  Any edits you make to the active sheet will also be made on all of the other selected sheets.

#6 Deselect (Ungroup) Sheets

To deselect multiple sheets you can just click on any tab that is not in the current selection.

You can also right-click any of the selected tabs and choose Ungroup Sheets.  The tab that you right-click will become the active sheet.

 #7 Hide & Unhide Multiple Sheets

To hide multiple sheets:

1. Select the sheets using the methods mentioned above.
2. Right-click one of the selected tabs.
3. Choose Hide.

The sheets will be hidden.

Unfortunately, unhiding multiple sheets is not directly possible in Excel.  When you right-click a tab and choose Unhide, you can only select one sheet from the list of hidden sheets in the Unhide window.

I have a post on 3 Ways to Unhide Multiple Sheets in Excel that explains techniques for unhiding sheets with a macro.

Bonus Tip: Sheet List

If your workbook contains a lot of sheets then you can right-click the tab navigation buttons to see a list of all visible sheets.  You can then double-click a sheet in the list to jump to it.

This list only shows the visible sheets in the workbook, and there is no way to search it.

So, I developed The Tab Hound Add-in to solve both of these problems and a lot more.

The add-in is packed with features (including unhiding multiple sheets) that make it faster & easier to navigate and modify the sheets in your workbooks.

I developed Tab Hound with VBA and the tools that are built into Excel.  If you’d like to learn more about macros & VBA then checkout my free training webinar that is going on right now.

Click here to learn more and register for the webinar

Conclusion

I hope those tips help save some time out of your day.  What are your favorite shortcuts for working with sheet tabs?  Please leave a comment below with your suggestions, or any questions.

Thank you! 🙂