A.N.M. Mohaimen Shanto
Deleting a sheet is necessary when you don’t need a sheet, or you might need to remove useless sheets. This tutorial will show you how to delete a sheet in Excel. Using these ways will help you to delete a sheet easily.
We are showing 5 ways to delete a sheet. You can choose any among them suited to your needs. But in our opinion, you must know every way to enrich your knowledge.
Download Practice Workbook
You can download the practice workbook from here.
7 Quick Ways to Delete a Sheet in Excel
To explain this article, we have taken the following dataset. It contains a Sales Overview for 2 months. The name of this Excel sheet is Dataset. We will use this dataset to explain how to delete a sheet in Excel.
1. Use Delete Command to Delete a Sheet in Excel
The first method is basic delete using the Delete command from the HOME tab. Here, we have copied data from the Dataset sheet to another sheet and named it as Using Delete Command. Now, we will delete this sheet using the Delete command from the Cells group in Excel.
Let’s see the steps.
Steps:
- Firstly, select the sheet that you want to delete.
- Secondly, go to the Home tab.
- Thirdly, select the drop-down option for Delete.
- Next, select Delete Sheet.
- Afterward, a Prompt will appear.
- Select Delete.
- Finally, you will see that you have deleted the selected sheet. Here, you can see that we have deleted the sheet, and only Dataset remains.
Read more: How to Delete Multiple Sheets in Excel
2. Apply Excel Context Menu to Delete a Sheet
Now, this method is the most used. This seems pretty easy to almost all users. Here, we have also copied data from the Dataset sheet to another sheet and named it as Applying Context Menu. Now, we will use this sheet to show you how to delete a Sheet in Excel using the Context Menu.
Let me show you the steps.
Steps:
- In the beginning, select the sheet you want to delete.
- Then, right-click on the sheet.
- After that, the Context Menu will appear.
- Next, select Delete.
- Afterward, a Prompt will appear.
- Select Delete.
- In the end, you can see that we have deleted the selected sheet, and only the Dataset remains.
3. Employ Keyboard Shortcut to Delete an Excel Sheet
Using the regular keyboard shortcut is also a way to delete a sheet. Here, we will show you how to use the keyboard shortcut to Delete a Sheet in Excel. This method will also come in handy in different scenarios. Let’s explore the steps.
Steps:
- To begin with, select the sheet you want to delete.
- Then, press Alt + H + D + S on your keyboard.
- Next, a Prompt will appear.
- Select Delete.
- Lastly, you can see that we have deleted the sheet named Employing Keyboard Shortcut.
4. Delete a Sheet Using Both Mouse and Keyboard
In this method, we will show you how you can use both mouse and keyboard to delete a sheet in Excel. Now, this is my personal favorite. You can use this to delete any sheet quickly. Here, we will delete a sheet named Mouse and Keyboard.
Let’s see the steps of this method.
Steps:
- Firstly, select the sheet you want to delete.
- Secondly, right-click on the sheet.
- Thirdly, the Context Menu will open.
- Then, press D on your keyboard.
- Next, a Prompt will appear.
- Lastly, select Delete.
- Finally, you can see that we have deleted the sheet, and only the Dataset remains.
5. Utilize Legacy Keyboard Shortcut to Delete an Excel Sheet
There were shortcuts in the pre-Excel (2007) era. There is a sequence of commands which are also supported in newer versions of Excel. Now, this method is not often used. But, we think you should also learn this. It will enhance your knowledge of Excel. Let me show you the steps.
Steps:
- First, select the sheet you want to delete. Here, we selected a sheet named Legacy Keyboard Shortcut.
- Then, press Alt + E + L on your keyboard.
- Afterward, a Prompt will appear.
- Select Delete.
- Finally, the sheet named Legacy Keyboard Shortcut will be deleted.
You can also use the Navigation pane to delete a sheet in Excel. The Navigation pane helps to understand the layout of the workbook. You can also delete a sheet from here. Let’s see the steps.
Steps:
- In the beginning, select the sheet you want to delete.
- Then, go to the View tab.
- Next, select Navigation.
- Afterward, the Navigation pane will appear on the Right side of the screen.
- Then, right-click on the sheet that you want to delete.
- After that, select Delete.
- Next, a Prompt will appear.
- After that, select Delete.
- In the end, you can see that we have deleted the sheet, and only the Dataset remains.
7. Delete a Sheet Using Macros in Excel
Here, we will use macros to delete a sheet in Excel. You can delete a sheet with a simple VBA code. We will delete the sheet named Using Macros.
Let me show you the steps.
Steps:
- Firstly, go to the Developer tab.
- Secondly, select Visual basic.
- Thirdly, the Visual Basic Editor window will open.
- Next, select the Insert tab.
- Then, select Module.
- Consequently, a Module will open.
- Then, write the following code in that Module.
Sub Deleting_Sheet()
Application.DisplayAlerts = False
Sheets("Using Macros").Delete
Application.DisplayAlerts = True
End Sub
🔎 How Does the Code Work?
- Here, I created a Sub Procedure named Deleting_Sheet.
- Then, I used the Application.DisplayAlerts property to avoid Prompt.
- Next, I used the Worksheet.Delete method to delete a sheet.
- Finally, I ended the Sub Procedure.
- After that, Save the code and go back to the worksheet.
- Next, go to the Developer tab.
- Then, select Marcos.
- Consequently, the Macro dialog box will appear.
- Select Deleting_Sheet as the Macro name.
- Then, select Run.
- Lastly, you can see that we have deleted the sheet.
How to Delete Multiple Sheets at Once
Though our article is all about Delete a Sheet, it will be useful if you learn how to delete multiple sheets at once. This will be much easier if you learn any of those previous methods. Here, we have taken the following dataset for this section. It contains 4 Excel sheets. We will show 2 different methods of deleting multiple sheets. Let’s explore them.
1. Use Shift Key to Delete Multiple Adjacent Sheets at Once
In this method, we will show you how you can delete multiple adjacent sheets in Excel. We will use the Shift key for selecting multiple sheets. Here, we will delete the marked 3 sheets in the following image.
Let’s see the steps.
Steps:
- To begin with, select the first sheet that you want to delete.
- Then, press and hold the Shift key while selecting the last sheet you want to delete.
- After that, all the 3 sheets will be selected.
- Then, right-click on any of the selected sheets.
- Consequently, the Context Menu will appear.
- Select Delete.
- Afterward, a Prompt will appear.
- Select Delete.
- Lastly, the sheets will be deleted.
2. Apply Ctrl Key to Delete Multiple Non-Adjacent Sheets at Once
Now, we will see how you can delete multiple non-adjacent sheets at once in Excel. In this method, we will use the Ctrl key for selecting multiple sheets. Here, we will delete the marked 2 sheets in the following image.
Let’s see the steps.
Steps:
- Firstly, select a sheet you want to delete.
- Secondly, press and hold the Ctrl key while selecting other sheets you want to delete.
- Thirdly, all the sheets will be selected.
- Next, right-click on any of the selected sheets.
- Then, select Delete.
- Afterward, a Prompt will appear.
- Select Delete.
- Finally, you can see that we have deleted the non-adjacent sheets.
Things to Remember
- These methods permanently delete those sheets. If you are not sure whether you need them after or not, make a copy of those sheets.
- If there is only one sheet in the workbook, you can’t delete this. However, you need at least more than one sheet to delete.
- Whenever using Macros, you must save your Excel file as Excel Macro-Enabled Workbook.
Practice Section
Here, we have provided a practice sheet for you to practice how to delete a sheet in Excel.
Conclusion
In the end, we hope these methods on how to delete a sheet in Excel have enhanced your knowledge of Excel. We are giving you a practice workbook with multiple sheets, try to delete those sheets using those methods. Give these a try. Also, be sure to check our website ExcelDemy to know more about Excel’s problems and their solutions.
