Copy data from multiple worksheets into one

When you work with multiple sheets located in different Excel files, you may need to bring certain records together. Copy Sheets lets you paste data from several spreadsheets to one list or workbook.

Video: How to merge Excel worksheets into one master worksheet

Before you start

Please note that the add-in works with visible rows only. Filtered, grouped, and hidden data will be ignored.

How to use Copy Sheets

Start Copy Sheets

There are two ways to run the tool:

  1. Click on the Copy Sheets icon on the Ablebits Data tab in the Merge group:
    Press the button with the Copy Sheets icon on it.
  2. Or click on the down arrow under the add-in icon and pick the necessary option in the drop-down list to get straight to step 2:
    Or use the drop-down menu to select the merging option right away.

Step 1: Choose the way to merge your worksheets

Decide how to copy your worksheets into one:
4 ways to join several Excel files together.

  • Copy sheets in each workbook to one sheet. Place the resulting worksheets to one workbook.
    Select this radio button to transform the selected workbooks into sheets and get the resulting tables in one file:
    Copy sheets in each workbook to one worksheet and place the resulting sheets in one file.
  • Copy data from the selected sheets with the same name to one sheet.
    Use this option if your task is to merge several Excel files into one by combining identically named worksheets and placing all resulting sheets to one workbook:
    Combine data from the selected sheets with the same name to one sheet.
  • Copy the selected worksheets to one workbook.
    Paste the needed sheets from different Excel files to one book:
    Copy the selected worksheets to one workbook.
  • Copy data from the selected worksheets to one sheet.
    Use this option to create one table with data from multiple sheets:
    Merge data from the selected worksheets to one sheet.

Note. If you select the Copy data from the selected sheet to one sheet option, the wizard will have an additional step which offers you to choose where to place the results, to a new workbook or a new worksheet.

When the option is chosen, click Next to continue.

Step 2: Select worksheets and ranges to combine

You will see a full list of files open in Excel on this step. Tick off the checkboxes next to the names of the worksheets you want to copy.

Tip. If you have a long list of files, take advantage of the checkbox next to the Worksheets column. It lets you instantly select and deselect all items in the list.

Besides, you can use the additional options:

Select worksheets to copy.

  1. Check Use the same range on all selected sheets to get the same range selected automatically across all the copied sheets.
  2. If you tick the Select sheets with the same name in all workbooks option and then start selecting sheets for copying, the tool will automatically tick sheets with the same name in other workbooks.
  3. By default, the add-in pulls all data ranges from the sheets. However, you can adjust that by using the Select range icon next to the sheet name in the list. It will show a dialog box, so you could pick the needed cells:
    Choose the range to copy manually.

Also, you can benefit from several additional options at the bottom of the wizard's window:

  • Collapse all / Expand all - click this button to quickly hide or show all sheets in each workbook.
  • Exclude - remove the selected workbooks from the add-in window.
  • Add files... - use this button to open additional Excel books.

Click Next to choose other merging options.

Step 3: Configure additional pasting options

This step lets you specify how you want to copy and paste the records into the resulting sheet:
Fine-tune additional options to change the way result will look.

Choose how to paste the data

  • Paste all. If the copied ranges contain formulas, they will be transferred along with the values.
  • Paste values only. Select this radio button if you don't want to include formulas in the results.
  • Create links to source data. Pick this option if you want the values to be updated automatically when the original worksheets are modified.

Decide on the arrangement of the copied datasets

  • Place the copied ranges one under another. Paste records vertically, i.e. data from sheet 2 will appear in the rows below data from sheet 1:
    Place the copied ranges one under another.
  • Place the copied ranges side by side. Paste records from the sheets horizontally, i.e. data from sheet 2 will appear in the columns to the right of data from sheet 1:
    Place the copied ranges side by side.

Adjust the resulting layout

  • Preserve formatting. Tick off this checkbox to save original cell format and the style of the copied ranges.
  • Separate the copied ranges by a blank row/column. Get an empty row or column between the data copied from different sheets.
  • Select Insert names of the source sheets or workbooks to the first column to see where data in each row come from.
  • Copy tables with their headers. Choose this option to paste ranges with their headers or unselect it to exclude the top row from the results:
    Pull all table headers into the result.

Responses

David says:
May 9, 2024 at 2:11 am

I have multiple Excel files contain only 1 sheet "Sheet1".
Say,
Source1.xlsx.Sheet1
Source2.xlsx.Sheet1
Source3.xlsx.Sheet1
I have an existing Excel files (Dest.xlsx) contains 3 sheets, "Source1_data", "Source2_data", "Source3_data".

Can I use your solution to copy the data (with format and formula) in those 3 source files to replace the data in the corresponding sheets in the destination file Dest.xlsx? The file and sheet names are fixed, will not be changed

Lori says:
June 17, 2021 at 10:37 pm

Hello Ablebits Team,
When using "Copy Sheets" and selecting the option "Data from the selected sheets to one sheet" and then selecting the option "Use the same sheet names in other workbooks"...

What is the maximum # of workbooks supported by the add-in?
Thank you!

Katerina Bespalaya (Ablebits Team) says:
June 18, 2021 at 10:25 am

Hello Lori,

Thank you for contacting us and for your question. Our add-in does not have clearly defined limitations on the number of workbooks to process. However, your resulting worksheet shouldn't exceed Excel limits on the total number of rows and columns on a worksheet.

If you've encountered any difficulties in using our add-in, please let us know how many workbooks you are trying to copy at the same time and how many rows and columns your tables contain. Thank you.

MJ Siddiqui says:
May 7, 2021 at 11:15 pm

I have several files in a folder. All files have same format. How can combine all the files so that a single file is created but the files are not added below each other but next to each other on the final sheet.
I am typing a case below where Col is Column.
File#1: Col A, Col B, Col C, File#2: Col A, Col B, Col C, File#N: Col A, Col B, Col C

Resulting file:
Col A( from Col A, File #1), Col B(From Col B, File #1), Col C(From Col C, File #1) Col D (From Col A, File #2) Col E(from Col B, File#2) Col F(From Col C, File #2) ..... Col N(Col A, From File#N) Col N+1(Col B, From File#N) Col N+2 (Col C, From File#N)

Thanks for all your help.

Viresh Shinde says:
October 5, 2020 at 6:45 am

I want to copy data from multiple sheets to one workbook just one below another.

Sophie says:
June 22, 2020 at 4:23 pm

Hi,
I am trying to copy the same data range from 200 different sheets into one single sheet. Instead of manually selecting the desired range for each sheet, is there a way of standardizing the desired range for all sheets?
Thank you

Saikumar says:
July 30, 2019 at 5:03 pm

Hi There,

Ex : I have 40 Employees His 40 Names and i had copied 40 Sheets in one workbook. In that copied sheet there have only one employee name and we have 40 names data in primary sheet and we have to copy and paste the data in multiple times based on primary sheet names data can you please any one help us on that.....

Mary Trifuntova (Ablebits Team) says:
July 30, 2019 at 5:12 pm

Thank you for contacting us, Saikumar.

For us to be able to understand your task better, please send us a small sample workbook with your source data and the result you expect to get to support@ablebits.com. I kindly ask you to shorten the table to 10-20 rows.
If you have confidential information there, you can replace it with some irrelevant data, just keep the format.

We'll look into your task and see if our software can help.

mae says:
December 2, 2018 at 2:45 pm

Hi Im trying to copy sheets from the one workbook to a new sheet on the same workbook. The Copy sheet feature doesn't have this option. Will you be able to add this feature? I don't want to create a new workbook. I'm still using a trial version. And I would like this feature before I decide to purchase.
Thank you in advance.

Natalia Sharashova (Ablebits Team) says:
December 3, 2018 at 1:11 pm

Hi, Mae,

Thank you for contacting us and for your question.

You are correct, the current version of the add-on doesn't have this feature.
I have forwarded your request to our developers and they will look if it is technically possible to implement it. I can't guarantee it will be added, but we can contact you back if/when the functionality is supported.

Thank you for your time and understanding.

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