Get Excel To Produce The Right Number Of Blank Worksheets

Q. When I create a new spreadsheet workbook, Excel opens three worksheets. All I want is one, and those extra worksheets bug me. How can I get Excel to stop it?

A. That’s one of Excel’s defaults. But worry not, you can easily change it. Go to Tools, Options and click on the General tab. Under Sheets in new workbook , change the default to 1. By the way, you can set the number as high as 255.

Notice also, while you’re in the Options menu, that you can change several other defaults: You can increase (or decrease) the number of files in the Recently used files list . (When you click on File , Excel displays the addresses of your most recently opened files for fast launching.) You also can change the default location (folder) of an initially saved file. In addition, you can adjust a worksheet’s default font style and its size.

Now what do you do when you have reduced the default to just one new worksheet and you suddenly find you need another worksheet or two? To add a new worksheet, choose Insert, Worksheet , and Excel will add the worksheet and name it (in this case) Sheet2. An even faster way to create a new worksheet is to right-click on any worksheet tab; that produces a drop-down menu and one of the items is Insert . Click on it and you have a new worksheet, and that, too, will be prenamed.

What do you do if the order of tabs now is out of sequence—Sheet2, Sheet1, Sheet3, for example? To sort it manually, just grab any tab, drag it to a new location and release the mouse button.