MS-Excel / Excel 2003

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Modifying the number of sheets in a workbook

In the olden days of Excel, when the program first started supporting the use of more than one worksheet in a single spreadsheet file, the program automatically provided each new workbook that you opened in the program with 17 blank worksheets. In the more recent versions of Excel (all those in the 2000 series), the program default has been lowered to a much more modest three sheets in every new workbook. For some users, 17 was far too many sheets for their modest spreadsheet needs, and for others, three sheets are far too few for the types of complex spreadsheets they routinely create.

Although Excel makes it easy to insert new worksheets in a workbook (you simply choose Insert → Worksheet to pop a new one in), if you find yourself having to manually add new sheets to many of the new workbooks you start, you should probably modify the default number of sheets that Excel adds to all new workbooks:

1. Choose Tools → Options to open the Options dialog box.
2. Select the General tab in the Options dialog box.
3. Enter a new value between 1 and 255 in the Sheets in a New Workbook text box or select this value with the box's spinner buttons; then click OK.

After changing the value in the Sheets in a New Workbook text box, Excel adds that number of sheets to any new workbook you create.