How To Quickly Move Or Copy Sheets Between Workbooks In Excel

Bottom Line: Learn a quick shortcut to move or copy sheets between workbooks.

Skill Level: Beginner

Video Tutorial

Watch on YouTube and give it a thumbs up.

Moving Sheets Between Workbooks

If you've ever moved a sheet from one workbook to another, you may have used the right-click menu to select Move or Copy. But you can actually drag and drop the sheet directly from one open workbook to another.

1. Just click on the tab that has the sheet name on it.
2. Then hold your mouse button down while you drag it over.
3. And then release it wherever you want it to go in the new workbook.

This process moves the sheet completely and doesn't leave a copy behind in the “from” workbook. However, if you want to leave the sheet there and make a copy into a new sheet, the process is just as easy.

Copying a Sheet into a New Workbook

To create a copy, the process is identical to the one above, except before releasing the mouse button in the new sheet, you are going to hold down the Ctrl key.

This leaves a duplicate sheet in both workbooks.

You sill see the plus symbol (+) in the mouse cursor icon when you copy the sheet.

Moving or Copying Multiple Sheets

These methods work for moving or copying multiple sheets at once. Simply select the sheets you want to move or copy before dragging them over. You can select multiple sheets by holding down the Shift or Ctrl key while clicking on the sheets you want to work with.

Unfortunately, you cannot move or copy multiple sheets if one of the selected sheets contains an Excel Table. This is a limitation of Excel. Sheets with Tables must be moved one at a time.

Related Posts

If you're wondering how I set up the side-by-side workbooks in my video, I explain the process in this post: Tips for Split Screen in Windows & Mac

And if you'd like to build a dashboard like the one you saw in the video, you can get step-by-step instructions here: Introduction to Pivot Tables and Dashboards

Conclusion

Just a quick tip to make your life easier as you move sheets between workbooks! I hope it helps.

What are some of your favorite tips and shortcuts in Excel? I'd love to hear them in the comments.