Force Byte - Editing a group of Excel sheets simultaneously

0 Photo

If you need to create or modify a set of worksheets that are similar in purpose and structure, like a set of quarterly expenditure reports, Excel is the tool to use because it can group multiple quarterly sheets together in a yearly expenditure workbook and then add, edit, or format data in all the sheets of the group simultaneously.

You can select and group sheets using either of the ways below:

1. Select the tab (*) of the first sheet in a range of adjacent sheets you want to group, hold down the key and click the tab of the last sheet in the range.

2. Select the tab of the first sheet you want to group, hold down the key and then click the tabs of any sheet you want to include, whether or not the sheets are adjacent.

3. Choose "Select All Sheets" from the sheet tab shortcut menu, which you can bring up by clicking the right button of the mouse on a sheet tab.

If you want to add the same set of formatting options to the quarterly worksheets of "Expense 1", "Expense 2", "Expense 3" and "Expense 4", which are contained in the workbook of "Expense", you can achieve this by adding formats to one worksheet and then using the "Copy" command to recreate them in other worksheets one by one.

But the simplest way to achieve the same result is by first grouping all four worksheets and then formatting all members of the group at the same time. To indicate that you are in group editing mode, Excel adds "[Group]" to the title bar of the workbook and so you should see "Expense.xls [Group]" on the sheet top.

Now you have a group of worksheets and after adjusting some font sizes and column widths in the "Expense 1" worksheet, you then click any of the other sheet tabs. You will see all the formats applied to the "Expense 1"worksheet are also on the other worksheets in the group.

Furthermore, you can select other sheets in the group without leaving group editing mode. However, if you click a worksheet tab outside the group, Excel will leave the mode and remove the "[Group]" indicator from the title bar of the workbook. In addition, if all sheets in the workbook are included in the group, clicking any sheet tab except that of the active sheet also exits the mode.

Remark:

(*) A sheet tab is situated near the bottom of a worksheet. By default, Excel will provide three sheets for you (shown by 3 sheet tabs at the worksheet bottom) once a new workbook has been created.

"Sharing IT as it applies to your daily life"