Every Excel workbook contains one or more worksheets, kind of like a book contains many
sheets of paper.
New workbooks contain three blank sheets by default - Sheet1, Sheet2, and Sheet3.
But imagine what it would look like if you were working with an even larger amount of
data.
Creating and customizing a range of worksheets could really help you stay organized and get
the most out of Excel.
I've already made some progress color-coding and renaming most of my worksheets.
But where did they all come from?
There are two ways to add worksheets to your workbook: either by copying or inserting a
new one.
I do need to add one final sheet for the month of December, so this is a good place for us
to start.
To quickly insert a new sheet, just click the Insert Worksheet icon, always found at
the end of your list of tabs.
A new blank worksheet will appear, ready for your content.
To copy one of your existing worksheets, right-click the tab, and select Move or Copy from the
menu.
This will create a new worksheet, and duplicate the contents - perfect for tracking my budget
from month to month using the same table.
Just check the box next to Create a Copy, and identify where you want the worksheet
to go.
I want mine to go to the end of the list.
Click OK, and your copy appears with the same name as the original, plus a version number.
Remember, this is the worksheet I needed for the month of December, so I'm going to go
ahead and rename it by right-clicking the tab, and then choosing Rename.
Now type the name, click anywhere outside the tab or press Enter on your keyboard, and
you're all set.
As you can see, the table from the November worksheet has been copied over, so I'm just
going to change this to December to match.
Now we can take a look at this extra blank worksheet that I no longer need.
To delete a worksheet, all you have to do is right-click the tab, and choose Delete.
Finally I'd like to show you how to color-code and move worksheet tabs by going all the way
back to my original sheet - Sheet1.
First I'm going to rename it… then give it its own unique color (like I've done for
the rest) by right-clicking and going to Tab Color.
The tab still appears white because the worksheet is selected.
Select any other tab and you'll see the color change.
Now I'd like to move this first worksheet, being that it's for the previous year, to
the very end of the list.
To do this, just click and drag the tab where you want it to go.
There!
Now everything is in order.
Using worksheets (and taking the time to customize them) is a great way to organize your data
and make it easier to navigate.