How to Switch Between Sheets in Excel (FAST!)
Excel allows users to have 255 sheets in a single workbook.
That’s a big number 🤯
Microsoft Excel is undisputedly the king of spreadsheets for storing and managing data. However, besides storing data, switching between these many sheets frequently might get very exhausting unless you know different ways to do so.
In this tutorial, I am going to walk you through a great deal of methods to switch between Excel sheets. Let’s go learning together.
Toggle through Sheet tabs.
The first and most obvious method to toggle between sheets is to click on the tab of the sheet that you want to switch to.
What are sheet tabs? The small rectangular tabs are on the bottom of your Excel book.
Each tab is named after a sheet and clicking on it will take you to that sheet.
The tab for the sheet presently active will usually be in a different color 🎨
Now, if you want to switch between sheets, click on the tab for the sheet to which you want to go. For example, I am presently on Sheet 1 and want to switch to Sheet 4.
Simply, click on the tab for Sheet4.
Excel will take you to Sheet 4.
Using the Ctrl and Page Up / Page Down keys
If you are an Excel wizard who knows how to play around with Excel commands using the keyboard only, reaching out for the cursor only to switch sheets is the most annoying thing out there and I couldn’t agree more.
This section is about the handiest keyboard shortcut to switch between sheets in Excel.
Just like you use the arrow keys to move up, down, left, and right between cells. You can use the Page Up and Page Down buttons (located next to the arrow buttons) together with the Ctrl button to switch between sheets ⌨
- To move towards the next sheet (sheets towards the right of the active sheet), press the Control key + the Page Down key (also written as PgDn on some keyboards).
- To move towards the previous sheet (sheet towards the left of the active sheet), press the Control key + the Page Up key (also written as PgUp on some keyboards).
It’s fast and your fingers will adapt to it in no time.
Switch Sheets using the Go to Option.
The Go to Tool of Excel allows you to go to a particular referred cell. This can be any cell from any sheet.
Having said that, you can switch to other sheets by going to cells from other sheets.
Here’s how you do it 👇
Step 1) Go to the Home tab > Editing Group > Find & Select > Go To option.
Or you can press the Control key + G on your keyboard to launch the Go To dialog box.
This will launch the Go To dialog box.
Step 2) In the Reference field, enter the reference for any cell from the sheet where you want to switch.
Write the Sheet Name followed by an exclamation mark and the cell reference.
For example, “Sheet2!A1” will take you to Cell A1 from Sheet 1.
Step 3) Click on the Okay button.
Step 4) Excel will take you to the referred cell of that sheet.
And ultimately, the sheet will be switched 🙌
Switch sheets from the Watch Window
Using the Watch Window to switch between different sheets of Excel is a very dynamic way to switch sheets in Excel 🥽
It is not a primary method of switching sheets but to keep an eye on different cells of a workbook. However, you can smartly work it around to switch between different sheets of a book.
Let me show you how.
Step 1) Click on any cell of the first sheet (one of the sheets between which you want to move).
Step 2) Go to the Formulas tab > Formula Auditing group > Watch Window button.
This will launch the Watch Window dialog box before you.
Step 3) Click on the Add Watch button.
Step 4) From the Add Watch window, select any cell of this sheet and click on the Add button.
You will see a watch is added to the window 👀
Step 5) Again, repeat Steps 3 and 4 to add a watch for a cell from another sheet (the one to which you want to switch).
Step 6) Add watches to cells from as many sheets as many you want to switch.
To add a watch to a cell from another sheet, launch the watch window, go to that sheet from the sheet tabs on the bottom, click on that cell, and click on the Add button. A Watch will be added to that cell of the sheet from the Watch Window.
Kasper Langmann, co-founder of SpreadsheetoStep 7) Double-click on any watch and Excel will instantly take you to that Sheet (and cell).
Like this, you can quickly switch between different watches to switch between different sheets.
Switch sheets from the Activate Sheet option
Excel also has an Activate Sheet pane that you might not have known of to date 📚
Let me show you how you can launch it and use it to switch between multiple sheets in Excel.
Step 1) Go to the bar containing sheet tabs at the bottom of the workbook.
Step 2) Look out for the two arrows before the first sheet tab.
These arrows are used to move between sheets.
Step 3) Right-click anywhere on these arrows.
This will launch the Activate Sheet pane as shown here.
The Activate Sheet pane shows all the sheets of a workbook. However, if you’ve hidden any sheet, it will not appear there.
Step 4) Double-click on any sheet name from the Activate Sheet pane.
Excel will navigate you to that sheet.
Switch sheets from the Name Box
Naming cells and ranges in Excel is an interesting concept.
You can name any cell or range in Excel as you like, and Excel will store the name for that cell in that book. You can then go to that cell using this name 💪
Using this feature smartly, we can name cells from different sheets in Excel and then go to these cells from the Name Box (which will ultimately switch sheets).
Step 1) Select a cell from a sheet.
Step 2) Before the formula bar, you will see the cell reference for it in the Name box.
Step 3) Clicking inside this box to name this cell.
Step 4) You can set up any name for this cell as you like. However, since we are using this method to switch sheets, it’s better to set up a name that mentions the sheet where the cell belongs.
Like I have set the cell’s name to DataSheetCell1.
Step 5) Similarly, go to different sheets, and select any cell where you’d want to be navigated (if there’s any such particular cell). Otherwise, you may randomly select any cell.
Once you’ve set up all names:
Step 6) Go to any sheet.
Step 7) In the Name box, click on the small down arrow.
Step 8) This will show you all the named cells of this workbook.
Step 9) Click on any name from the Name Box.
Clicking on it will take you to the named cell from that sheet.
This is how you can conveniently switch between sheets using the Name Box 📝
Conclusion
If you get to work with a lot of sheets in Excel and moving between them all is indispensable, this is all you need.
In the tutorial above, we have learned multiple methods to switch between sheets in Excel. Starting from simply toggling between the sheet buttons to using keyboard shortcuts to many others.
Which one of these makes your favorite method depends on your situation and needs. Do try them all to find the sheet-switching method that suits you the best.
And once you’ve done this, make sure you read out the following Excel tutorials by Spreadsheeto.
Written by Kasper Langmann
Hi, I'm Kasper Langmann👋
I'm the co-founder of Spreadsheeto, a certified Microsoft Office Specialist, and a Microsoft MVP.
With over 10 years of experience, I’ve taught Excel to millions of people worldwide.
I spent over 17 hours researching and writing this tutorial.
Last updated on August 29th, 2024.
Before you go, sign up for my free Excel course (+100,000 students) ->
