One of the features of Excel that is often overlooked is working with grouped worksheets. When you group the worksheets within a workbook, you can perform operations to several worksheets at one time. This eliminates the necessity of doing the same operation over and over to different worksheets.

To group worksheets which are next to each other in the workbook:

1. Click on the sheet tab for the first worksheet
2. Hold the Shift Key
3. Click on the last sheet tab to be included in the group

To group worksheets which are not right next to each other:

1. Click on the sheet tab for the first worksheet
2. Hold the Control Key
3. Click on each sheet tab to be included in the group

After you create the group, the word “group” appears in the title bar of the workbook. Once they are grouped you can format one worksheet and all of the worksheets will have the same formatting. You can insert a row in a worksheet and the same row will be inserted into all worksheets. This is a great tool when you need for all of your worksheets to have the same formatting.

You can use the Fill command in the Editing Group on the Home ribbon bar to fill information across worksheets when they are grouped. For example, if you add a few worksheets to your workbook and you can to copy parts of one worksheet to another, you could use copy and paste, however, this could take several operations to perform. By grouping the worksheets and using the fill command, you could quickly copy parts of the original worksheet to the new worksheets inserted into the workbook.

Identical worksheets are needed prior to using the Consolidation feature, creating a sum across worksheets or using the Paste Special Math features to create summary worksheets. By grouping the worksheets first and then adding rows or columns, changing headings and other formatting operations, you ensure that the spreadsheets remain uniform.

Be careful when using groups because if you forget that your spreadsheets are grouped and then proceed to add or change figures on a worksheet, all of the worksheets in the group will have the same figures. To remove a group, simply click on a sheet that is not in a group. If all of the worksheets are grouped, right-click on any tab and choose Ungroup Sheets. Keep an eye on the title bar prior to making changes and Excel will tell you if the sheets are grouped.

As you can see, there is a lot to learn about Excel. Business Training Team has developed extensive online training for Excel. You can see what is covered by visiting Make Excel Work. This training is presented by Sue White a Certified Microsoft Excel Specialist.