How to Delete a Spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel
But be very careful, it’s permanent
Everyone who works withMicrosoft Excel workbookswill have to delete a spreadsheet (also known as worksheet) sooner or later. It may contain too many mistakes, or it’s simply no longer needed. If you’re in this situation and you wonder how to delete single or multiple Excel spreadsheets, this article will explain several ways to do it.
Deleting a spreadsheet from Microsoft Excel is straightforward, and you don’t have to be particularly tech-savvy to do it. However, there are multiple ways to do it, and which one suits you the best will be your choice. Just remember that if you delete a sheet in Excel, you won’t be able to retrieve it, and the data it contains will be lost. So be careful about what you’re deleting.
That said, also check our guide on insertinga spreadsheet in a Word docto expand your Excel skills.
1. The Right-Click Menu Method
The right-click menu is the quickest and easiest way to delete a single MS Excel spreadsheet from your workbook. Follow these steps to do it in just a few clicks:
After this, the selected worksheet will automatically be deleted.
2. Delete Multiple Sheets at Once
If you have multiple Excel spreadsheets to delete, you’ll notice that clicking the popup warning for each sheet can be tedious work. It’s possible to group the sheets you need to delete and delete them all simultaneously rather than delete each separately. Here’s how:
Note that you can’t delete all worksheets from the workbook. For Excel to work, a workbook must have at least one worksheet visible.
3. Use the Home Tab to Delete a Spreadsheet
The Home tab contains allExcel’s most commonly used commands. You’ll find the Delete option in theCellssection on the Excel ribbon. Here’s how to delete a sheet from the Home tab:
4. Use the Navigation Pane to Delete a Sheet
Sadly this feature is now available only to those in theMicrosoft 365 Insider program. It isn’t there in Microsoft Excel on Windows. However, if you’re a member of the Insider program, this information is still relevant to you.
The Navigation Pane lists all the elements in one Microsoft Excel Workbook. You can use it to understand or navigate your Excel workbook. But you can also delete some Workbook elements, sheets included. Follow these easy steps:
And just like that, the worksheet is gone!
5. Delete an Excel Sheet With a Keyboard Shortcut
Deleting a spreadsheet with Excel’s keyboard shortcuts is the easiest way to remove unwanted content quickly. But there’s no dedicated delete shortcut for deleting spreadsheets. This is probably because Microsoft doesn’t want you to delete important work accidentally. That’s also why other spreadsheet-deleting methods are put in place.
However, using your keyboard, you can use the ALT hotkeys to delete a spreadsheet. Here’s how:
Note that this will delete the active sheet, the one that’s currently displayed. With some practice, this method is even quicker than the right-click menu method described above.
6. Legacy Keyboard Shortcut Still Works
Excel used to have a menu system in the past before the visual ribbon commands were added to the software. The menu system came with separate keyboard shortcuts that accelerated the workflow in Excel. If you know the right keyboard shortcut command, you can still use them.
The command to delete the current Excel worksheet isALT+E+L. Use it to delete one sheet at a time quickly. This will still trigger the warning message if your worksheet has any content, so you’ll have to click the Delete button for each sheet you delete patiently.
7. Use the VBA Code Editor to Delete Multiple Worksheets
If you have ever had to delete many worksheets in your MS Excel workbook, you already know how tedious that work can be. The warning message pops up for each worksheet you delete, and you have to click that confirmation button each time. To avoid multiple warnings, you can always group your worksheets. Still, if there are too many of them, you’ll need to find and group them manually, which can take time.
Instead, you can use Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) as a workaround. Microsoft developed and implemented the programming language application in some Microsoft Office applications such as Word, Excel, and Access. This will not only automate the deletion process but also skip all the warning messages.
Sub DeleteAllSheets()
Application.DisplayAlerts = False
For Each ws In Worksheets
If ws.Name <> ActiveSheet.Name Then
ws.Delete
End If
Next ws
Application.DisplayAlerts = True
End Sub
All worksheets that are not active at the time will be automatically deleted. You can close VBA and check in Excel. There’ll be no warning message due to theApplication.DisplayAlerts = Falseline in the code, which prevents them from popping up.
Similarly, you can delete all sheets that contain a specific word or text in their name.
Sub DeleteSheetsWithCertainText()
Dim MyText As String
MyText = Application.InputBox(“Enter text that your sheets contain”)
Application.DisplayAlerts = False
For Each ws In Worksheets
If ws.Name Like “” & MyText & “” Then
ws.Delete
End If
Next ws
Application.DisplayAlerts = True
End Sub
What’s your favorite method of deleting a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel? Boost your productivity with the best approach, and let us know in the comments below if you found another way to deal with your unwanted spreadsheets.
Nicolae is a Jack of all trades technology writer with a focus on hardware, programming languages, and AI image-processing software. Over the last five years, he has ghostwritten numerous tech how-to guides and books on a variety of topics ranging from Linux to C# programming and game development. Nicolae loves everything that has to do with technology and his goal is to share his knowledge and experience with others.Read Nicolae’s Full Bio
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