mitrobeWhen it comes to documenting and arrangement and many more office and school projects that involve numbers, etc, you can also trust and use Excel for the work.
However, during the process of using Excel, you may want to switch between sheets, how will you do that.
In this article, I will show you some simple techniques you can use to Switch Between Worksheets in Excel.
Keyboard Shortcuts To Switch Between Sheets In Excel
So you’ve got a multi-worksheet Excel document in front of you. When you need to flip between them, the most apparent option is to manually choose a different sheet from the workbook’s bottom. That option, however, may not be available.
You can flip between sheets in Excel using a keyboard shortcut if you can’t use your mouse or touchpad, or if you have a large task and don’t want to waste time on it.
You’ll need to master two shortcuts: Ctrl + PgDn (page down) for navigating to the right-hand sheet, and Ctrl + PgUp (page up) for switching to the left-hand sheet. To transition between sheets in the workbook, simply follow these steps:
- In order to move one sheet to the right, hold down Ctrl, then press the PgDn key.
- To keep moving to the right, press the PgDn key again.
- In order to move back or one sheet to the left, hold down Ctrl, then press the PgUp key.
- To keep moving to the left, press the PgUp key again.
This is only one example of an Excel keyboard shortcut. Learning a few additional useful shortcuts will help you work more efficiently. It will save you time while browsing Excel or doing basic chores like altering the row height and column width in the application, for example.
Read also: 5 Risky Google Chrome Extensions You Should Uninstall now
Use The Go To Command
Another useful approach to go about your Excel worksheet is to use the Go To command. This strategy will come in handy if you have to deal with overflowing Excel spreadsheets with a lot of rows and columns on a regular basis.
Follow these instructions to use the Go To command to travel to a different part of your workbook:
- Open your Excel worksheet.
- Choose Edit from the menu on top of the screen.
- Select Go To… option from the drop down menu. You will see the Go To window open. You can use that to jump from one place in your document to another.
- In the dialog window, find the Reference line and type in your cell reference, like “C22” or “H134”. Then press OK.
This will take you to the place you’ve chosen by moving the active cell box onto that specific cell.
Enable Go To Command Using Keyboard Shortcuts
A quicker way to use the Go To command in Excel is by learning the right keyboard shortcuts for it. There are two different options here, you can either press the F5 key or use the Ctrl + G keyboard shortcut to bring the Go To window up.
Once you start using the Go To feature, you will see that it also stores all of your previous searches in that little window. So you can find a list of all your previous cell references in the top box above the Reference line. A useful feature if you find yourself jumping back and forth between specific areas of your Excel document.
However, remember that this information will disappear once you close your Excel workbook. So if you think you’ll need it for future reference, make sure you save it elsewhere before exiting the document.
Switch Between Sheets in Excel Using Go To
If you don’t want to jump to a specific cell in a different worksheet, but just want to open the whole thing, you can also use the Go To command to do it.
In order to switch between sheets in your Excel workbook, follow these steps:
- Open your Excel workbook.
- Bring up the Go To window using one of the shortcuts or manually.
- In the Reference line, type in the desired sheet name along with the cell reference. For example, if you’re on Sheet 2 and want to move to Sheet 3, you’ll need to type in “Sheet3 + exclamation mark + the cell reference” in the Reference line, like Sheet3!B5.
The exclamation mark here serves as a separator between the sheet name and the cell number, as you can’t use spaces in cell references.
- That command will take you to a different sheet and move the active cell box to the cell you’ve chosen. In order to move back to the previous sheet, repeat the whole process but change the sheet name that you type in the Go To window.
Use Hyperlink To Change Worksheets
You can navigate around your Excel workbook and jump from one sheet to another using hyperlink as well. In Excel, there are different hyperlink types, and you can link to an existing file on your computer, a web page, or an e-mail address.
If you want to create a hyperlink and use it to move to a different worksheet, do the following:
- Select a place in your sheet (a cell) where you want to insert the hyperlink.
- Right-click on it and choose Hyperlink from the drop-down menu.
- From the options in the middle of the box, choose Document.
- Move on to the Anchor line below, find the Locate… button next to it and click it.
- In the pop-up window, choose the sheet you want to link to and type in the cell reference where you’d like the hyperlink to take you.
- After you press OK, you’ll be taken to the previous window where you can change the text of the hyperlink that you’ll see in the document. Type it in under Display.
You can later delete or edit this hyperlink to change its destination or appearance.
Use a VBA Script to Move Between Sheets
While all of the above choices are excellent for flipping between Excel sheets, you may discover that you require more. For example, if you’re working with a large Excel document with several spreadsheets and need to switch between them often. In that situation, you may automate the procedure using a VBA macro or script.
Using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) scripting, you may automate many different functions and operations in Excel. Excel macros are written in this programming language.
If you’re new to VBA, we have a beginner’s tutorial and an expert VBA guide for MS Excel that will teach you all you need to know about DIY programming in Microsoft Office.
If you’re already familiar with Excel, you can use macros like the ones below to navigate about your worksheet.
VBA Macro To Move To The Right
Sub Change_Sheets_Right() Dim SheetNum, CurrentSheet As Integer SheetNum = Sheets.Count CurrentSheet = ActiveSheet.Index If CurrentSheet < SheetNum Then Sheets(CurrentSheet + 1).Activate Else Sheets(1).Select End If End Sub
VBA Macro To Move To The Left
Sub Change_Sheets_Left() Dim SheetNum, CurrentSheet As Integer SheetNum = Sheets.Count CurrentSheet = ActiveSheet.Index If CurrentSheet > 1 Then Sheets(CurrentSheet - 1).Activate Else Sheets(SheetNum).Activate End If End Sub
Install both codes in your workbook to be able to move in both directions, right and left one sheet at a time.
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