Clever Clogs tip # 731
1 August 2023


Get in the habit of renaming new worksheets on the fly (Microsoft Excel) *

Hello and welcome to tip of the month August!

Hope you enjoyed July. Mine ended in a fabulous way... going to the annual Cambridge Folk Festival. Were any of you there?

Today's tip was inspired by one of the many people I follow and check out on LinkedIn (so that you don't have to): Jon Acampora, who shared this double-click tip to insert and rename new sheets at the same time.

Can any of you relate to a workbook with no sensible sheet names?

Whatever method you use to add a new sheet (clicking on the plus sign or SHIFT + F11) a new sheet, called something like "Sheet2", will be placed after the one you had active when you inserted it. OK, you can simply double-click its sheet name to rename it. Or perhaps you use right-click? But I know many of us think we'll do it later, yet never do until you need to find that needle in a haystack.

So why not change a habit of a lifetime and rename new worksheets when you create them?!

Here's how:

  1. Double-click the plus sign.
  2. Type a new name. No need to first delete the default name!
  3. Press ENTER.

And here are seven other ways I use double-click in Excel. See "Related tips" mentioned further down to get more details. Oh, and no need to "steal" it. I share my tips for free - since 2003.

  1. Automatically fit the width of all columns
  2. Collapse and expand the ribbon
  3. See the data behind a specific figure in a PivotTable report
  4. Copy a formula down a column
  5. Apply formatting in multiple places
  6. Edit cell contents
  7. Display colour-coded formulas in its cell

What's your favourite? Or do you use double-click for anything else in Excel?

Related tips

  1. Automatically fit the width of all columns: tip_714.php
  2. Collapse and expand the ribbon: tip_579.php
  3. Adjust the formula bar to read or edit a large amount of text: tip_403.php
  4. See the data behind a specific figure in a PivotTable report: tip_399.php
  5. Take a shortcut -insert new worksheet: tip_285.php
  6. Keep the column width when pasting: tip_465.php
  7. Start a new line of text within a cell: tip_183.html
  8. Copy all formatting from one object to another: tip_90.html
  9. Quickly repeating a formula down a column: tip_40.html

Last month's CleverClogsTipTime on LinkedIn

  1. Manage interruptions by setting up specific notifications only (Outlook)
  2. Editing PowerPoint slides in Slide Show mode (kind of)
  3. Focus on content (MS Teams)
  4. Jump to a specific folder in Outlook
  5. 35 years ago this month I moved to a job in IT

That's it. Enjoy August - whatever it is you have planned! For me, after a couple of super busy months, it's finally "cucumber time", aka "silly season". The time of year when things slow down. Hurrah!

K.

PS I'm looking for a bit of help in boosting my Google Business profile. Google Reviews signal that your business is real, functioning and - if they're positive - trustworthy. Many of my customers say that they found my courses extremely helpful (someone wrote the other day that "What Karen doesn't know about Microsoft isn't worth knowing"; thanks Ros!) and tip subscribers comment on how much they use the hidden gems. So if it wouldn't be too much to ask, could you please leave a review? It really helps. https://g.page/roem-ltd/review?nr=20


* Unless stated otherwise this tip is written for Microsoft 365 desktop apps and Windows 10 users, but might also be useful in Office 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019.