Excel 2010 Bible

Chapter 3: Essential Worksheet Operations

57

If you move or copy a worksheet to a workbook that already has a sheet with the same name, Excel

changes the name to make it unique. For example, Sheet1 becomes Sheet1 (2). You probably want

to rename the copied sheet to give it a more meaningful. See “Changing the name of a worksheet,”

earlier in this chapter.

Note
When you move or copy a worksheet to a different workbook, any defined names and custom formats also get
copied to the new workbook. n

Hiding and unhiding a worksheet .............................................................................

In some situations, you may want to hide one or more worksheets. Hiding a sheet may be useful if

you don’t want others to see it or if you just want to get it out of the way. When a sheet is hidden,

its sheet tab is also hidden. You can’t hide all the sheets in a workbook; at least one sheet must

remain visible.

To hide a worksheet, right-click its sheet tab and choose Hide Sheet. The active worksheet (or

selected worksheets) will be hidden from view.

To prevent others from unhiding hidden sheets, inserting new sheets, renaming sheets, copying sheets,

or deleting sheets, protect the workbook’s structure:

1. Choose Review ➪ Changes ➪ Protect Workbook.


2. In the Protect Workbook dialog box, click the Structure option.
   3. (Optional) Provide a password.

After performing these steps, several commands will no longer be available when you right-click a

sheet tab: Insert, Delete Sheet, Rename Sheet, Move or Copy Sheet, Tab Color, Hide Sheet, and Unhide

Sheet. Be aware, however, that this is a very weak security measure. Cracking Excel’s protection fea-

tures is relatively easy.

You can also make a sheet “very hidden.” A sheet that is very hidden doesn’t appear in the Unhide

dialog box. To make a sheet very hidden:

1. Activate the worksheet.


2. Choose Developer ➪ Controls ➪ Properties. The Properties dialog box, shown in the fol-
   lowing figure, appears. (If the Developer tab isn’t available, you can turn it on using the
   Customize Ribbon tab of the Excel Options dialog box.)


3. In the Properties box, select the Visible option and choose 2 - xlSheetVeryHidden.
   continued

Preventing Sheet Actions