Useful Tips for Copying and Moving Excel Sheets

These are two simple but useful tips on moving and copying Excel worksheets, both within a file (workbook) and between files.

1.     Copy and Rename a Sheet

You probably know that in Excel you can grab a sheet tab (at the bottom of the sheet) and move it to a different position, between other sheets. This is useful if you want to have the sheets in a different order:

But did you know that you can copy a sheet –with all its contents– with a very similar move?  All you have to do is to hold the Ctrl key while dragging the sheet tab.  The mouse icon gets a “plus” (+) added to it. When you release the mouse, your copy of the sheet appears where you dropped it.

The new sheet will have the name of the copied sheet, with a number added. You can easily rename the sheet by double-clicking the name tab.  Or right-click the tab and choose the Rename option on the pop-up menu.

2.     Move or Copy a Sheet to Another File

You can move an Excel worksheet from one workbook to another.

Get both workbooks visible on screen, for example by, on the View ribbon, using Arrange All > Vertical. Then drag the sheet Tab (at the bottom of the sheet) to the new file.

If you don’t save the source file (or you hold in the Ctrl key during the drag), you’ll have copied the worksheet.