Weekly Computer Tip # 156
20 May 2006

edit and format multiple worksheets in one operation (Microsoft Excel)

Ever find yourself entering the same data in more than one sheet? Well, you'll be pleased to know that you can apply the same editing - or formatting - to two or more worksheets in a workbook simultaneously, saving you the time it would take to individually edit or format each of those worksheets.

Here's how:

1. To select two or more non-adjacent worksheets, click on the tab of each worksheet, while holding down the [CTRL] key.
2. To select two or more adjacent worksheets, click on the tab of the first worksheet and then on the tab of the last worksheet, while holding down the [SHIFT] key.
3. Enter or modify your data and apply the necessary formatting options to the sheet that's displayed.

When you edit or format the data, the changes affect all selected worksheets. Which is exactly what you set out to do, but you have to realise that, if one of the worksheets already contains data, you may inadvertently replace information you didn't mean to change. Which is why you might want to view all your worksheets at the same time, as described in tip # 110 (http://www.roem.co.uk/tip_110.html)

Until next week.

PS I’m committed to sharing the best of what I know with others so please don’t keep me a secret. If you enjoyed today’s tip, please forward it to anyone you feel may benefit. Alternatively, feel free to reprint it (with full copyright and subscription information) in your newsletters and message boards.

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