As a member, you'll also get unlimited access to over 79,000 lessons in math, English, science, history, and more. Plus, get practice tests, quizzes, and personalized coaching to help you succeed.
Try it risk-freeAlready registered? Log in here for access
Karen has a Bachelors in Communications. She has 25 years of experience in Information Systems, Adult Learning and Virtual Training.
Just like in Microsoft Word or Microsoft PowerPoint, you can have multiple pages in Microsoft Excel. Sometimes the two terms, workbook and worksheet, can be confusing.
A workbook is the entire Excel file. Some refer to their Excel file as a spreadsheet, but technically, a spreadsheet is one page in a workbook. And, did you know you can have multiple spreadsheets within a workbook? A worksheet is a single page or sheet within the workbook.
This lesson will review the purpose of worksheet tabs, explain where to find them, discuss how to add and remove them, and finally, how to change the fill color of a worksheet tab.
The worksheet is also referred to as the spreadsheet. Think of a workbook as a regular book, in that one book is the entire story, but each page contains a part of the story. Another example would be your personal budget. The entire workbook contains your budget, but you might have one page or worksheet for each month of the year.
The worksheet tabs appear at the bottom of the page. Clicking on the tab takes you directly to that page of your workbook. You can add more worksheets, delete them, change the worksheet title and add a color fill to the tab.
There are two common ways to add a worksheet. You can use the ribbon commands or use the right-click method. Let's start with the steps to using the ribbon commands.
Not sure about you, but that's too many steps for me!
I prefer the right-click method. Right-click on any of the worksheet tabs, select Insert from the options menu and click on OK. That's it! Don't worry about the tab title at this point, that comes next.
You can follow the same right-click method to delete a worksheet as well. Right-click on the worksheet tab and choose Delete.
Let me share a quick tip with you. If all you need to do is add a sheet, there is a plus symbol next to the last sheet in the workbook. Click on the shortcut to insert a worksheet.
Now let's take a look at giving the worksheet tab a title. Something a little more detailed than Sheet 1, Sheet 2, Sheet 3, and so on. Again, as with all things related to computer applications, there is more than one way to get something accomplished. You can right-click on the tab and select Rename or you can just double-click directly on the tab title. I prefer the double-click method.
After you double-click on the title, Excel opens the text box for editing. Type in the new title and you are good to go. In the lesson video, our example is the personal budget workbook. Notice that we have 12 worksheet tabs, titled with each month of the year.
It is always nice to be able to add a bit of variety to the tabs with color. The steps to changing the tab color are about as simple as they can get. Right-click on the tab, choose Tab Color from the options menu to open the color palette and select a color. If you don't find what you want in the standard colors, click on More Colors. After you select your color, step off the tab (just click on a different tab). This will apply your selection to the tab.
Unfortunately, Excel does not let you change the color, size or font of the title text. However, Excel does a nice job of automatically changing the color of the font, depending on the background color - it actually changes it in order to create contrast.
This lesson reviewed the difference between a workbook and a worksheet. You learned that a workbook can have several worksheets or pages. Each page is referred to as a spreadsheet and they can be accessed using the worksheet tabs along the bottom of the screen.
Worksheet tabs can be added and removed by right-clicking on the tab and selecting either Insert or Delete. You can also rename the tab and change the tab fill color.
Using worksheet tabs can help to keep Microsoft Excel workbooks organized.
After you've watched this video on how to modify the worksheet tab in Excel, you should be able to:
To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member.
Create your account
Already a member? Log In
BackAlready registered? Log in here for access
Did you know… We have over 200 college courses that prepare you to earn credit by exam that is accepted by over 1,500 colleges and universities. You can test out of the first two years of college and save thousands off your degree. Anyone can earn credit-by-exam regardless of age or education level.
To learn more, visit our Earning Credit Page
Not sure what college you want to attend yet? Study.com has thousands of articles about every imaginable degree, area of study and career path that can help you find the school that's right for you.
Back To Course
Intro to Excel: Essential Training & Tutorials15 chapters | 70 lessons
{{courseNav.course.topics.length}} chapters | {{courseNav.course.mDynamicIntFields.lessonCount}} lessons | {{course.flashcardSetCount}} flashcard set{{course.flashcardSetCoun > 1 ? 's' : ''}}
Next Lesson
Study.com video lessons have helped over 30 million students.
"I learned more in 10 minutes than 1 month of chemistry classes"
- Ashlee P.
"I learned more in 10 minutes than 1 month of chemistry classes"
- Ashlee P.
"I aced the CLEP exam and earned 3 college credits!"
- Clair S.
Over 65 million users have prepared for {{displayNameByProductKey[registrationData.product || testPrepCocoon]}} and other exams on Study.com
"The videos have changed the way I teach! The videos on Study.com accomplish in 5 minutes what would take me an entire class."
- Chris F.
Over 65 million users have prepared for {{displayNameByProductKey[registrationData.product || testPrepCocoon]}} and other exams on Study.com
