Tips for Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Other Applications

Formatting Multiple Excel Spreadsheets Simultaneously

Why It Matters To You

Have you ever had to reformat a number of identical worksheets, for instance a series of monthly reports or a set of evaluator scorecards? Wasn't it a pain in the butt, going to each one, trying to remember the full set of formatting changes you need to make, and still finding out you didn't quite make them all the same?. If you learn how to work in multiple spreadsheets at the same time, you can reduce your workload significantly, depending on how many sheets you are formatting and the extensiveness of the required formatting.

How To ...

If you need to make the same changes to a number of worksheets, you can format multiple worksheets simultaneously. This is actually a bit of a mis-statement, because this isn't limited to just formatting. You can write content, formulas, etc in multiple sheets, simultaneously.

Select a single worksheet by selecting one of the worksheet tabs. Next, use SHIFT and left click on a new sheet to select a contiguous set of worksheets to select the two end points and every sheet in between or use CTRL and left click on specific worksheets to select discrete worksheets. If you did it correctly, all of your selected sheets will be highlighted, like Sheets 1 through 3 below.

When multiple sheets are selected, any changes to one sheet will be replicated on all highlighted sheets. You can change fonts, text size, format columns, rows, even write formulas. Once you’re happy with you changes, click on a non-selected sheet to deselect all of them. If you initially selected all sheets, then select any other sheet to deselect all of them.

Note, if you go into File: Page Set Up, any changes you make (e.g., margins, headers and footers, print area) will only be made to the current working sheet NOT all of the highlighted sheets.

Notes

Last updated	9/2/07
Application Version	Excel 2003
Author	Michael Kan
Pre-requisites	None
Related Tips	None