Workbooks with a dozen tabs are normal, and clicking along the tab bar is slow. Flicking between sheets from the keyboard makes a big workbook feel small.
Ctrl+Page Down
Step by step
- Press Ctrl+Page Down to go to the next sheet on the right.
- Press Ctrl+Page Up to go back to the sheet on the left.
- Press Shift+F11 to insert a brand new worksheet.
Tips & troubleshooting
- On laptops without dedicated Page Up and Page Down keys, you may need Fn with the arrow keys.
- Ctrl+Home takes you to cell A1 on whichever sheet you land on.
Jump straight to a particular sheet
Stepping through one tab at a time is slow in a big workbook. These go directly.
- Right-click the small arrows at the bottom-left of the window, beside the first sheet tab. A list of every sheet appears; pick one and press Enter.
- Press Ctrl+G, type a reference with the sheet name such as Summary!A1, and press Enter. Put single quotes around names that contain spaces.
- Build a contents sheet. Press Ctrl+K on a cell, choose Place in This Document and pick a sheet to create a link.
Selecting several sheets, and the risk
Ctrl+Shift+Page Down and Ctrl+Shift+Page Up add the neighbouring sheet to the selection. With sheets grouped, the word Group appears in the title bar and anything you type or format is applied to all of them at once. That is useful for setting up twelve identical monthly sheets, and dangerous if you forget it is on. Right-click a tab and choose Ungroup Sheets as soon as you have finished.
Managing sheets from the keyboard
- Shift+F11 inserts a new sheet to the left of the current one.
- Alt, H, O, R renames the current sheet.
- Alt, H, O, M opens Move or Copy, where ticking Create a copy duplicates the sheet.
- Alt, H, D, S deletes the sheet. This cannot be undone with Ctrl+Z.
- Ctrl+Tab switches between open workbooks rather than sheets.
On a Mac
In Excel for Mac press Option+Right Arrow for the next sheet and Option+Left Arrow for the previous one.