It can be a real pain to find a specific sheet, if an Excel file has lots of worksheets. If I’m making a big file for a client, I’ll often colour groups of sheet tabs, to they’re easier to find. Then, if you want the admin lists sheets, look for the red group.
Cobbler’s Syndrome
For my own workbooks, I usually don’t bother, and then end up wasting time, scrolling back and forth, looking for the sheet that I need. It’s like the old saying – “The shoemaker’s children go barefoot.” Apparently I’m not the only one who does stuff like that – it’s called Cobbler’s Child Syndrome! Are you guilty too?
Apparently AlexJ doesn’t suffer from that syndrome, because he sent me a worksheet navigation tip this week, and he uses it in his own files. In addition to creating coloured tab groups, AlexJ puts spacer tabs between the groups, to add some visual separation.
Spacer Tab Benefits and Tips
I played with this idea in one of my Excel sample files, and additional benefits. For example, it adds spaces in the sheet list that appears when you right-click the Navigation Arrows.
Don’t use too many spacer tabs though, because each one will be a little wider than the previous one, due to creating unique names with space characters.
Will You Try This?
To see the details on how AlexJ creates his spacer tabs, and a few additional tips, check out the Excel Worksheet Tips page on my Contextures website.
What do you think about AlexJ’s tip?
- Have you tried something similar in your big Excel files?
- If not, does this technique look like something you’d be willing to try?
Video: Excel Navigation Tips
This video shows AlexJ’s spacer tabs, and a few other tips to make it easier to find a specific sheet in a large workbook.
The sample file that I used in this video is this one: Select Multiple Items from Data Validation Drop Down
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