Create An Excel Contents Tab

In the January column (page 82) a reader asked how to display 36 workbook tabs in Excel. We described several solutions, but reader Mary Jo Gruber, a CPA with a St. Louis public school district, suggests a completely different approach. Because she works with a budget file that contains 63 tabs, our ideas lacked the muscle to meet her needs. Instead, she sets up a single contents page composed of easy-to-create hyperlinks on the first worksheet of the 63-tab file; each hyperlink triggers the opening of its linked workbook. Here’s what a section of her contents page looks like:

To create one, name any unused worksheet Contents (by right-clicking on its tab and left-clicking on Rename .) If the tab is not in the leftmost position, use your left mouse button to drag the tab to that position.

Now place your cursor in any convenient cell of the Contents page and right-click. That generates a menu from which you should click on Hyperlink , evoking the Insert Hyperlink screen (see screenshot below). Highlight the Place in This Document box.

That will automatically list the names of all the tabs in this file under the heading Or select a place in this document . If you want this hyperlink to open the August tab, click on August and that name will appear next to Text to display . If you want the worksheet to open at a particular place, enter the cell location (such as R45) in the space next to Type the cell reference with the cell where you want the Revenue worksheet to open.

The hyperlink will appear on the first page of the Contents worksheet. When you click on it, you’ll immediately go to the August worksheet, cell R45.