Each Excel spreadsheet is a workspace of its own inside your workbook. These tabs live at the bottom of the workbook. You can click on one of these tabs to
Organizing and tidying your workbook saves you time while working within it. For a bit of spreadsheet housekeeping, it helps to rename sheets in Excel. It only takes a second to add, and it saves you much more time later. Let’s learn how.
How to Rename Sheets in Excel
To rename sheets, start by locating the tabs at the bottom of your workbook. Double-click on the sheet name and Excel highlights the text, indicating that it’s ready-to-edit. Then, just start to type your new sheet name. When you’re finished, click away from the tab name or press enter, and you’ll lock in the new name.
You might be wondering how your formulas will work after you rename your sheets. After all, a formula that’s written to point to data in another sheet contains the sheet name. Luckily, Excel automatically updates your formulas when you rename sheets.
That’s it! The maximum length for an Excel sheet name is 31 characters. There’s no way to get around this limit, so you might need to abbreviate your sheet names to fit in the app.
How to Rename Excel Sheets With A Shortcut
Maybe you’re such an Excel guru that you prefer to do everything from the keyboard. After all, it’s almost always faster to work from the keyboard than it is to reach for the mouse. In that case, it’s worth remembering the keyboard shortcut below:
Alt + O + H + R
Once you enter this keyboard shortcut, Excel automatically jumps to let you rename the active sheet. Just start typing the new name and press enter.
Want to continue to learn how to master organizing your Excel workbook? Check out these other articles that teach you how to keep your workbook neat and tidy: