Tip #20 - Group Edit in Excel

100 Computer Tips in 100 Days

Tip #20 - Group Edit in Excel

Wait till you hear this juicy Excel tip. Let’s say you have created a workbook that has sheets for all twelve months and then you realize that you need to make the same change to all the sheets. If you’re not aware of group edit you are relegated to making the change 12 times! Never again! What you need is group edit.

To go into the group edit:

• At the bottom left of your screen, click the first sheet you want to select (I’ll call this the January sheet)
• Hold down the Shift key
• Click the last sheet you want to select (I’ll call this the December sheet)

Now you’re in the group edit mode. The name of your document displayed in the title bar of the window will include (Group), as you can see in the image above. Now make your change to the active sheet (the sheet with the bold name) and the change is made on all of the sheets. Quite a time saver, right?

Note: If the sheets you want to group are not consecutive use the Ctrl (Command) key to select them.

Getting out of the group edit

Once you've made your changes, you’ll want to exit the group edit in order to make changes in individual sheets. The method you use depends on whether or not you have selected all of the sheets in the workbook.

• If all of the sheets in the workbook were selected, click on a sheet that is not the active sheet and you’re out of group edit.

If you have sheets in the workbook that were not included in the group edit, click on one of those and you’re out of group edit.