Excel Tip Tuesday: Move or Copy Worksheets

Posted by Lisa on July 17, 2018 at 10:00 AM

Excel IconHave you ever copied the data from a worksheet in your Excel workbook to another workbook - or even a worksheet - and then you spend time reformatting the data you copied because it didn’t copy everything? Let's look at how to make that not happen and shorten the time between original and copy.

Here’s a report where I have everything formatted just so. My column widths are set up, my columns are grouped correctly, and so forth:

Excel Tips - Copy Worksheets1

I just want to copy it to another workbook in Excel. But if I just highlight and copy, this is the sad-looking result I get:

Excel Tips - Copy Worksheets2

Doesn’t look quite the same does it? Well, you can copy the entire worksheet from your original workbook to another open workbook, a brand new workbook, or even the same workbook. This is accomplished with a right-click on the worksheet tab (if you've been reading these tips every week, then you can probably tell by now that I love the right-click menus in Excel). Notice all the options within the right-click menu on the worksheet. Now choose 'Move' or 'Copy':

Excel Tips - Copy Worksheets3

That will open another menu with additional options. In the 'Too book:' section, click on the drop down menu and it will show options to copy to a new workbook, the same workbook, or another open workbook:

Excel Tips - Copy Worksheets4

After you choose the workbook, then, in the next section, you can choose where to put it by selecting 'Before sheet'. It will show all sheets in the workbook, or you can choose '(move to end)'. Most important: check the box that says "Create a copy". Then click Ok.

Excel Tips - Copy Worksheets7

And here's the result:

Excel Tips - Copy Worksheets6

That's quite a bit different than the first option, right? And with just a few little clicks!

Leave us a comment and let readers know what Excel tips you use on a daily basis.

Topics: Excel

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