Eliminate Extra Excel Worksheets

Provided by: Luke Chung, FMS President

By default, a new Excel spreadsheet includes three worksheets:

Typically, most users only need to have one worksheet available. Having the extra worksheets does not matter, but if you give the spreadsheet to someone else, they may need to look at the extra worksheets to verify nothing is there, or may miss something the few times you put information there.

Follow the steps below to modify the default behavior to include only one worksheet. (Note that you can always add additional worksheets as you need them.)

In Microsoft Office Excel 2003 and Earlier

1. From the Excel menu, select Tools -> Options to open the Options dialog.
2. Switch to the General tab, and change the "Sheets in new workbook" option to 1:

In Microsoft Office Excel 2007

1. Click on the Office button (in the upper left corner), and select "Excel Options" to open the Options dialog.
2. With "Popular" selected in the Left Menu, change the "Include this many sheets" option to 1.

If you should need additional worksheets:

1. Right click on a worksheet tab
2. Select "Insert..."
3. Select "Worksheet" and click the OK button, or double-click on "Worksheet".