How to Copy a Sheet If Name Already Exists in Excel

Sometimes, when we try to copy a sheet from one workbook to another, you may notice Excel will show you a warning due to the same range. We have to define identical names in Excel. In this article, we will demonstrate to you 3 possible ways to copy the Excel sheet while the name already exists. If you are also curious about it, download our practice workbook and follow us.

How to Copy a Sheet If Name Already Exists in Excel: 3 Easy Ways

To demonstrate the approaches, we take two different workbooks where we have similar types of name ranges. If we try to copy the sheet titled January from the workbook Employee Salary Sheet to Name Already Exists, Excel shows us an error due to the existence of the same name in both files. We will display to you the ways to solve this issue.

📚 Note:

All the operations of this article are accomplished by using the Microsoft Office 365 application.

Method 1: Deleting Named Ranges

To avoid this problem, we can delete the named ranges that are not necessary from both files. It will reduce some of the warning messages. The steps of this process are given as follows:

📌 Steps:

First of all, go to the Formula tab.
Now, from the Defined Name group, select the Name Manager option.

As a result, a small dialog box called Name Manager will appear.
Then, select the first name.
Next, press the ‘Shift’ key and click on the last name. You will see all the name ranges get selected.
After that, click on the Delete option.

Your all-name ranges will be removed from the sheet.

Finally, click the Close button, and now you can copy the sheet without warning.

Thus, we can say that our procedure works perfectly, and we are able to copy the Excel sheet while the name already exists.

Read More: How to Edit Defined Names in Excel

Method 2: Renaming Named Ranges

In this process, we will rename the same name range to avoid the issue. The steps of this procedure are given below:

📌 Steps:

First, go to the Formula tab.
After that, in the Defined Name group, select the Name Manager option.

As a result, a small dialog box titled Name Manager will appear.
Then, select any name which you want to rename. To show the procedure, we choose the name, Ron.
Now, press the Edit option.

Another dialog box entitled Edit Name will appear.
Afterward, write down a suitable identical name. Here, we wrote Tom.
Click OK.

You will see the name will be updated. At last, click the Close button.

Your problem will be solved, and you can copy the sheet without warning.

Hence, we can say that our method works effectively, and we are able to copy the Excel sheet while the name already exists.

Method 3: Using Updated Version of Excel

Most of the time, this type of problem usually occurs in the old version of Microsoft Excel. Those versions lack many of the new built-in features. So, if you are using the old version of Excel, update your application. Try to get the updated new version of Office 365. It will help you to avoid such problems. Moreover, you will get lots of new formulas and features to increase your work efficiency.

Download Practice Workbook

Download this practice workbook for practice while you are reading this article.

Name Already Exists.xlsx

Employee Salary Sheet.xlsx

Conclusion

That’s the end of this article. I hope that this article will be helpful for you and you will be able to copy the Excel sheet though the name already exists. Here, we demonstrate the possible approaches to handle this issue. If you have a better option, feel free to share it with us.

Please share any further queries or recommendations with us in the comments section below if you have any other questions or suggestions. Keep learning new methods and keep growing!

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