How to switch between sheets in Excel

When a workbook has dozens of sheets with long names, the usual way of switching between tabs with the mouse becomes inconvenient: the tabs don’t fit, and you scroll through them looking for the right one.

Fortunately, there are several convenient ways to switch between sheets. Let’s go through them in order.

1. Keyboard shortcuts to switch between sheets

The main keyboard shortcuts for switching between sheets:

This method always works and is good for moving between neighboring sheets or jumping to the first or last one. But there are no shortcuts to go to a specific sheet in the middle of the workbook. More shortcuts are in the list of Excel hotkeys.

Careful with Ctrl+Shift+PgDn: grouped sheets are edited all at once. When you’re done, right-click a tab and choose Ungroup Sheets.

2. The Activate dialog

In the bottom left corner of the Excel window, there are sheet scroll arrows. Right-click them, and the Activate dialog opens with a list of all sheets in the workbook. Double-click the sheet you need, and you’re there.

3. Go To and the Name Box

If you know the sheet name, press F5 (or Ctrl+G) and type the address with the sheet name, for example ‘Sales 2026’!A1, then press Enter. The same works in the Name Box to the left of the formula bar. Apostrophes are needed only if the name contains spaces.

In Excel 365, there is also View → Navigation: a pane with a list of all sheets and objects of the workbook, which stays open while you work.

4. VBA macro: a list of sheets on a separate tab

You can create a macro that builds a table of contents: a list of all sheets with hyperlinks to them. Save the code in the Personal Macro Workbook (PERSONAL.XLSB) to use it in all files:

Sub CreateSheetIndex()
    Dim ws As Worksheet, toc As Worksheet, r As Long
    Set toc = Worksheets.Add(Before:=Worksheets(1))
    toc.Name = "All sheets"
    For Each ws In Worksheets
        If ws.Name <> toc.Name Then
            r = r + 1
            toc.Hyperlinks.Add Anchor:=toc.Cells(r, 1), Address:="", _
                SubAddress:="'" & ws.Name & "'!A1", TextToDisplay:=ws.Name
        End If
    Next ws
End Sub

After you run it, a new sheet “All sheets” appears at the beginning of the workbook with clickable links to all tabs.

5. Built-in procedure in !SEMTools

If you have !SEMTools installed, you don’t need to deal with code: just click the button on the add-in tab, Lite or Pro. You could make the hyperlinks yourself, but why, if the process is already automated?

The procedure is available in the free version of !SEMTools.

6. Sheet list window with search (!SEMTools)

The same menu has another procedure: the list of all sheets opens in a separate window, where you can:

• quickly find a sheet by name using search;
• move between sheets with the arrow keys;
• go to the selected sheet by pressing Enter.

This procedure is also free; you just need to install the add-in.

This is especially convenient in large workbooks with dozens or hundreds of sheets. And unlike the previous solution, it doesn’t change the content of the workbook at all.

Summary

I hope you found what you were looking for on this page and now switch between sheets faster. Ctrl+PgUp/PgDn is enough for a few sheets, the Activate dialog and Go To for medium workbooks, and for dozens of sheets a table of contents or the !SEMTools searchable sheet list saves the most time.