So far, I'm only using one worksheet in my workbook.
My inventory is only for one month and only appears on one sheet.
But let's take a look at how you can use the other sheets to accomplish your goals in Excel.
By default, three sheets appear when you create a new workbook.
If you want to change this default setting, you can do that in your Excel Options.
I'm going to leave the default setting set to 3 for right now.
I can add new sheets as I need them. I would like to name this first sheet January.
To do this, just right-click the sheet tab, and from the menu that appears, choose Rename.
Now, the word Sheet appears highlighted, and you can begin typing the new name.
If I want to rename the next sheet, I just select it, and do the same thing.
Or if you prefer to use the Ribbon you can click the Format command in the Cells group
on the Home tab, and then select Rename Sheet. The word Sheet appears highlighted, and you
can begin typing the new name. You can use whichever method you prefer.
Personally, I use the first way I showed you. I think it's a bit faster for me but you'll
learn what works for you. Since my default sheet setting is 3, I need
to add more sheets so that I can list my inventory each month.
To add a new sheet, left-click the Insert Worksheet Icon, and a new sheet will appear.
I'll do this several more times, so that I will have enough sheets.
If you'd prefer to use the keyboard shortcut, just press the Shift key and the Function
11, of F11 key, at the top of your keyboard. If you decide you want to delete a sheet,
just right- click the sheet and select delete. Or, if you like using the Ribbon command,
just select the sheet you want to remove, and click the drop-down arrow next to Delete
in the Cells group on the Home tab. From the menu that appears, select Delete
Sheet. Ok, now you know how to rename, add, and delete
sheets. Let's actually go ahead and rename these two
sheets. We can add the rest of the months later.
On my January sheet, I have all my inventory information for that month, but all my other
sheets are blank. I want to copy all this information to my
February sheet. I can do that by selecting it all, selecting
the Copy command, and then left-clicking the February sheet to select it.
Now I can click the Paste command and select paste from the list and all the info appears
on the sheet. This is a lot easier to do than typing this
information into the sheet but copying and pasting into multiple sheets can be time consuming,
also. This is where grouping comes in.
Before I group my sheets, I need to copy the information I want to paste.
I actually just want to paste my heading and categories to the remaining months, so I need
to select this information and click the Copy command.
Now we're ready to group. To group contiguous sheets, or sheets that
are all in a row, click the first sheet you want to group, then press and hold the Shift
key on your keyboard, now click the last sheet you want to group.
See how March, April, and May all changed color and now the sheet tabs are white? These
sheets are now grouped together. Select a cell where you want the information
to start. Now, click the Paste command.
And the information appears. But instead of pasting it to just one sheet,
it appears in all three sheets. We can also make formatting changes when sheets
are grouped. For example, I want to add 2008 to the beginning
of my title. If we do it once, the change will appear on
all three sheets that are grouped. It looks like I need to change the width of
my columns as well. That looks a lot neater.
As you can see, the tabs are still white, which indicates they are still grouped.
To ungroup sheets, just right-click one of the sheets, and select Ungroup from the list.
Before we finish talking about grouping, let me show you one other way to group.What if
I want to make a change only to two or three sheets and they aren't side by side? You can
do this using the Control key. Select the first sheet you want to group,
then press and hold the Control key on your keyboard.
Now select any of the other sheets you want to group, and release the Control key.
You can see that the sheets you selected now appear in white and are grouped together.
If I make a change now to one, it will appear in all the grouped sheets, but not the ones
that weren't grouped. So, whatever I change will only appear in March and May.
There is one more thing about working with worksheets that I want to show you because I find it helpful.
This is the ability to freeze, or lock, specific rows or columns in your spreadsheet.
Excel calls this freezing panes. When you freeze panes, you select rows or
columns that will remain visible all the time, even as you are scrolling.
You see, right now when I scroll down my spreadsheet, I can't see the column headings that let me
know what type of information each column contains.
If I scroll to the right, I can't see the column that tells me what item all this inventory
information refers to. To freeze a row, select the row below the
one that you want to freeze. Since I want row 1 and 2 to appear at
the top even as I scroll, I'll select Row 3.
Now, click the View tab. In the Window group, click the Freeze Pane
command to view the list. And choose Freeze Pane.
Everything above this line is frozen in place. Now, when I scroll in the worksheet, the first
two rows stay pinned at the top so I can always see the column headings.
To unfreeze the pane, just click the Freeze Pane command, and select the Unfreeze command.
Now, you can do the same thing with columns. Let's say we want the first two columns to
always appear on the left. Just select the column to the right of the
columns you want frozen, and then click Freeze Pane, and Freeze Pane again.
Now as we scroll to the right, those columns stay right in place.
Freezing rows and columns can be especially helpful when dealing with large spreadsheets,
so this is a good thing to know how to do. It doesn't change how the spreadsheet looks
printed, but it does make working with it electronically a lot easier.
We've gone over a lot, but it really is important to know how to work with worksheets so that
you can easily navigate your workbook and use it most efficiently.
Take some time to explore worksheets on your own.