How to Duplicate a Sheet in Excel
(3 Methods)

There are many situations where you need to copy data in Excel.

When copying data from one cell to another, it’s easy. But what if you need to copy data from an entire Excel worksheet? 😨

Well, it’s easy too. You just need to duplicate it.

Learning how to duplicate sheets in Excel will help you back up important worksheets or create copies for testing purposes.

There are 3 methods on how you can do this and we’ve made a step-by-step tutorial for each of the methods below. 👇

Download this sample Excel workbook to follow along.

Method 1: Duplicate a Sheet by dragging

Open your sample Excel workbook and you’ll find that it contains multiple Excel worksheets. You can find the existing worksheets in the Sheet Tabs below. 👀

The fastest way to duplicate a sheet in Excel is by dragging.

Usually, the drag-and-drop method is used when you want to move something from one place to another. But this also works when you want to copy sheets.

It only takes 2 steps. 😊

Step 1) Click on the Sheet Tab that you want to copy. In this example, “Sheet 1”.

Step 2) Hold the Ctrl key and drag the sheet tab to where you want it.

And there you have it.

We can rename this sheet, Sheet 2, so that we won’t get confused.

Method 2: Duplicate a Sheet by Right-clicking

Another easy way to duplicate a sheet in Excel is by right-clicking.

Step 1) Right-click on the Sheet Tab you want to copy. In this example, it’s Sheet 1.

Step 2) Select Move or Copy from the right-click context menu.

This will open the Move or Copy dialog box.

Step 3) Under the Before sheet box, choose where you want to place the copy. We’re clicking Sheet 1 for example.

Step 4) Tick the “Create a copy” box.

Step 5) Click OK.

This will create a copy of the sheet. And it’s now placed before Sheet 1. ✅

You can then rename this sheet tab, Sheet 3. You can also arrange your sheets as you like.

Method 3: Duplicate a Sheet using the Ribbon

The 3rd method how to duplicate a sheet in Excel is using the Ribbon, of course.

The Excel Ribbon contains all the features available in Microsoft Excel.

To copy a sheet using this method, you just need to:

Step 1) Go to the Home Tab.

Step 2) In the Cell group, click the Format button.

Step 3) Click Move or Copy Sheet from the drop-down list.

This will open the Move or Copy dialog box.

Step 4) Under the Before sheet box, choose where you want to place the copy. We’re clicking Sheet 1 for example.

Step 5) Tick the “Create a copy” box.

Step 6) Finally, click OK.

In the same way, you can rename this sheet tab to Sheet 4. ✍

How to Copy multiple sheets in Excel

If there is more than one sheet you want to copy in Excel, you can do that as well.

You can use any of the methods above to copy multiple sheets.

Here’s how.

Step 1) Select the sheets you want to copy.

To select adjacent sheets, click on the first Sheet Tab, press Shift, and click on the last Sheet Tab.

To select non-adjacent sheets, click on the first Sheet Tab, press Ctrl, and click on the Sheet tabs you want to copy one by one.

For this example, let’s select Sheet 1, Sheet 2, and Sheet 3.

You can use any of the 3 methods above. Let’s use the drag-and-drop method.

Step 2) Press Ctrl and drag the tabs to your desired position.

Nice work! 👍

But what if you want to copy sheets from one Excel workbook to another? 🤔

We got you! Scroll down and we’ll discuss this in the next section.

How to Copy an Excel sheet to another workbook

There are 2 ways to copy an Excel sheet to another workbook.

If you can duplicate a sheet within the same workbook by dragging and right-clicking, you can also do so from one workbook to another.

By Dragging

You can do this seamlessly when you open the source Excel file and the destination Excel file.

Step 1) Open a new Excel workbook or Press Ctrl + N.

Step 2) On the View tab, in the Windows group, click View Side by Side. This will arrange the two workbooks horizontally.

Step 3) In the source workbook, click the sheet tab you’d like to copy.

Step 4) Hold down the Ctrl key and drag the sheet to the new workbook.

By Right-Clicking

Step 1) Right-click on the Sheet Tab that you want to copy.

Step 2) Select Move or Copy. This will open the Move or Copy dialog box.

Step 3) Under To book, click the downward arrow to show a dropdown list of Excel workbooks.

Step 4) Choose the target file. For our example, select Book 1.

Step 5) Under the Before sheet box, let’s click the option “Move to end”

Step 6) Select the Create a copy box.

Step 7) Click OK.

This will create a duplicate sheet in the Excel workbook. 🙌

That’s It—Now what?

Awesome!

Now you’ve learned how to duplicate sheets in Excel. Have you ever wondered what else you can do to your Excel sheets?

We’ve compiled related Excel tutorials here for your next read. 📚

Written by Kasper Langmann

My name is Kasper Langmann, and I’m the co-founder of Spreadsheeto and a certified Microsoft Office Specialist.

This tutorial reflects over 10 hours of dedicated research and writing, based on my 10+ years of professional Microsoft Excel experience.

Last updated on April 3rd, 2024.

One last thing before you go: make sure to sign up for my free Microsoft Excel course!