Manage multiple workbooks and worksheets at a time

When you work with large Excel books with numerous worksheets, navigating and organizing sheets can waste a lot of time. If the workbook was created by someone else – exploratory browsing becomes incredibly time consuming. And when you need to copy multiple worksheets at a time, or rename, or reorder sheets – don’t you wish you could do it all in one place?

Workbook Organizer is a comprehensive tool to navigate and manage multiple Excel workbooks and worksheets at once:

  • Review open workbooks and all sheets, including hidden and very hidden
  • Easily add, save, delete or rename worksheets
  • Quickly rearrange, sort and filter multiple worksheets at a time
  • Easily unhide, hide or make very hidden, protect or unprotect sheets
  • Copy multiple sheets to other workbooks or save as separate files

Before you begin, add Workbook Organizer to Excel

Workbook Organizer is one of the 20+ features within XLTools Add-in for Excel. Works in Excel 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, desktop Office 365.

Get started with XLTools ribbon
– free trial gives you 14 days of full access to all features.

How to use the Workbook Organizer add-in for Excel

Workbook Organizer conveniently stays on top of Excel interface. This way you can preview workbooks, navigate sheets to find the right one, and edit worksheets on the way when necessary.

  1. Click the Workbook Organizer button A dialogue box will open:
    • The tree view shows all open workbooks and the list of all worksheets they contain.
    • Worksheets are listed in the same order as they are organized in a workbook.
    • Name, Protection and Visibility are indicated for each sheet.
  2. You can quickly find and review any sheets you are looking for:
    • Select a worksheet from the list, and it immediately opens. As you select another sheet, watch the corresponding tab open in the background.
    • To select multiple sheets, hold Ctrl and select the sheets you need (or hold Shift to select consecutive sheets).
    • To select all sheets in the list, press the Select Sheets button Option 'All'.
      Or: click Ctrl + A.
  3. Top of the window contains Workbook Organizer tools: drop-down lists to filter worksheets and buttons for various operations (create, open, select, save, rename, delete, hide, protect, sort, compare, etc.) To see what a certain button does, hover over the icon until a tooltip appears.
Excel Workbook Organizer overview

How to open, close and create a new workbook with the Workbook Organizer

  • To open an existing workbook:

    Click Open a workbook Find the workbook on your computer Open.

  • To open a recent workbook:

    Click on the arrow to the right of the Open a workbook button Select a required file from the drop-down list of recently opened workbooks.

  • To create a new workbook:

    Click on the arrow to the right of the Create new button Option Workbook.

  • To close an open workbook:

    Select the workbook in the tree view Click Close selected workbook.

Open, create, or close a workbook

How to save one or multiple Excel workbooks at once

  • To save the active workbook:

    Click the Save active workbook button.

  • To save a copy of the active workbook under a different name:

    Click on the arrow to the right of the Save active workbook button Option Save active book as Save the file to your computer.

  • To save all open workbooks:

    Click on the arrow to the right of the Save active workbook button Option Save all books If you have new and unsaved workbooks, the add-in will prompt you to save them to your computer, one after another.

Save all workbooks at the same time

How to filter many worksheets and quickly find the one you need

  • Filter by name:

    Start typing the sheet name (or a part of the name) in the search box Sheets are automatically filtered as you type Select the required worksheet.

  • Filter by property (visible/hidden/very hidden, unprotected/protected):

    Use the corresponding drop-down filters Sheets are automatically filtered Select the required sheet.

filter worksheets in a workbook

How to rename sheets in a workbook

Select the sheet you want to rename Click the Rename a sheet button Type a new name Notice the tab change its name accordingly.

Or: simply double-click and rename the worksheet.
Or: click F2 and rename the worksheet.
Rename an Excel worksheet in Organizer

How to delete or create new sheets with the Workbook Organizer

  • To delete a worksheet:

    Select one or multiple sheets in the tree view Click the Delete sheet(s) button, or use the Delete key Confirm.

  • To add a new sheet:

    Click the Create new worksheet button A new blank worksheet will appear Rename and replace the sheet if necessary.

  • To add multiple worksheets:

    Click the Create new worksheet button consequently as many times as many new sheets you need.

Create new or delete multiple worksheets

How to reorder and sort sheets in a workbook

As you reorder sheets, watch the tabs change their position accordingly.

  • To change the position of one or multiple sheets:

    Select the sheet(s) you want to move Drag and drop to another position in the same or another open workbook.
    Or: use the Move Up and Move Down buttons.
  • To easily sort multiple sheets alphabetically:

    Select worksheets you want to sort Click the A - Z button, or Z - A button.
    Tip: you can apply sorting to all sheets, as well to selected sheets only. Hold Ctrl to select nonadjacent sheets.
Reorder and sort Excel worksheets

How to unhide, hide or make very hidden one or multiple worksheets at a time

  • To unhide sheets:

    Select hidden (or very hidden) sheets Click the Unhide sheet(s) button The sheets are now visible.

  • To hide sheets:

    Select visible sheets Click the Hide sheet(s) button The sheets are now hidden.

  • To make sheets very hidden:

    Select sheets Click on the arrow to the right of the Hide sheet(s) button Option Make very hidden The sheets are now very hidden.

Hide or unhide multiple worksheets

How to protect or unprotect one or multiple worksheets at a time

  • To protect sheets:

    Select sheets Click the Protect sheet(s) button Set a password if necessary or leave it blank Allow some operations with these sheets to others users OK The sheets are now protected.

  • To unprotect sheets:

    Select protected sheets Click the Unprotect sheet(s) button Enter a password, if applicable OK The sheets are now unprotected.

    If the sheets have different passwords, then the add-in will prompt you to enter passwords one by one.

When a worksheet is unprotected, all cells in the worksheet are automatically unlocked and editable.

Note: XLTools or Microsoft Excel do not store your passwords. If you forget your password, we cannot restore it for you.
Protect and unprotect multiple Excel worksheets

How to copy multiple sheets at once

  • To copy worksheets to another existing workbook:

    Open both the source and destination workbooks On XLTools ribbon, click the Workbook Organizer button In the tree view, select one or multiple sheets you want to copy Hold Ctrl and drag and drop the sheets from the source workbook to the destination workbook.

  • To copy worksheets to a new workbook:

    Select one or multiple sheets you want to copy Click the Copy sheet(s) to a new workbook button The new workbook is automatically generated Save the workbook.

Tip: you can select any sheets from different open workbooks. All the selected sheets will be copied into a new workbook.
Copy multiple sheets to a new workbook

How to save one or multiple worksheets as separate files

  1. Select sheets Click on the arrow to the right of the Save button.
  2. Select option Save sheet(s) as separate files.
  3. Select a folder on your computer, or click Create new folder.
  4. Done! Each sheet you selected is saved as a separate file.

The sheets are copied – they are not removed from the source workbook. New files are automatically named after the respective sheets.

Save Excel worksheets as separate files

How to compare two Excel worksheets or VBA macros

To compare two worksheets:

  1. Click the Workbook Organizer button Select any two sheets to compare.
  2. Click the Compare button.
  3. A new workbook is generated with these worksheets The differences are highlighted.
Note: only unprotected sheets can be compared.
Compare two worksheets

To compare two VBA macros:

  1. Click the Workbook Organizer button Select any two macros to compare.
  2. Click the Compare button.
  3. The side-by-side comparison of the two scripts will open The differences are highlighted.
Compare two macros
Compare vba versions side by side

How to switch between the most recent sheets

You can navigate sheets by selecting them in the tree view with a mouse or arrow keys. Since the Workbook Organizer stays on top of sheets, you can make necessary edits to your documents without closing the Organizer window.

Or, you can use XLTools Sheet Switcher. Similar to Alt-Tab combination in Windows, it allows you to switch between the most recent sheets.

Any questions or suggestions?
Gabor GyörgyDear Support, we have a problem with your plugin. We would to work in the same time on the same sheet. Is it possible? Or we need to find another solution? kind regards, Gábor György
November 28, 2018 at 11:50
Maria BalobanovaHello Gabor, You can work in a shared workbook as usual. However, if you want each person on your team to have access to XLTools features, then each person will need to install the add-in on their computers. Hope this answers your question!
November 29, 2018 at 10:07
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