In Excel: press Ctrl+Page Down to move to the next sheet or Ctrl+Page Up for the previous one; on a Mac, use Fn+Control+Down Arrow / Fn+Control+Up Arrow, or Option+Right Arrow / Option+Left Arrow. With too many tabs to hunt through, right-click the tab-navigation arrows at the bottom-left of the window to open a list of every sheet name, or Ctrl+click those arrows to jump straight to the first or last sheet.
Press Ctrl+Page Down to move to the next sheet, or Ctrl+Page Up for the previous one.
On Mac, use Fn+Control+Down Arrow / Fn+Control+Up Arrow, or Option+Right Arrow / Option+Left Arrow if the keyboard has no dedicated Page Up/Down keys.
With many sheets, right-click the tab-navigation arrows at the bottom-left of the tab strip and double-click any name in the list to jump straight there.
Ctrl+click those same arrows to jump directly to the first or last sheet in the workbook.
If a sheet doesn't appear anywhere, it's hidden — right-click any visible tab ▸ Unhide first.
What this does
Three separate mechanisms handle this, and the fastest one depends on how far away the target sheet is. Ctrl+Page Down/Up steps one sheet at a time in tab order — quick for an adjacent sheet, slow for sheet 40 of 50. The tiny ◀▶ navigation arrows just left of the first tab only scroll which tabs are VISIBLE when clicked normally; right-clicking them instead opens an 'Activate' list of every sheet by name, and double-clicking a name jumps straight there regardless of distance. Ctrl-clicking those same arrows skips directly to the very first or very last sheet. None of this reaches a hidden sheet — right-click any visible tab ▸ Unhide first. The same idea underpins a lot of everyday Excel work, so the few minutes spent getting it right here pay back across every sheet you build afterwards. Treat it as a pattern, not a one-off, and it stops being something you look up and starts being something you reach for. For “switch between sheets in excel”, the reliable version is a short checking loop, not just the first command that appears to work. Run it on a deliberately small range first, watch how the affected sheet change, and only then apply the same setup to the full sheet. When this is a ribbon command, the selection matters more than the button: confirm the range, apply the command, then spot-check the output before saving. That is what makes a workflow that saves repeating the same clicks every week useful in real work: repeatable, auditable, and not dependent on memory or luck.
A worked example
A workbook has 24 monthly tabs plus a Summary sheet at the far right. From January, pressing Ctrl+Page Down 23 times reaches December — it works, but it's slow. Right-clicking the ◀▶ arrows at the bottom-left instead opens a scrollable list of all 25 sheet names; double-clicking "Nov-2025" jumps straight there in one click. Ctrl-clicking the right arrow jumps straight to "Summary," the last tab, skipping every month in between. With more than a handful of tabs, clicking through them one at a time wastes real time every day — the sheet list behind a right-click (or Sheets' All sheets menu) turns a 20-click hunt into one click, once you know it's there. One habit worth forming early: name the cells that hold your inputs, so the formula reads in plain language instead of a string of cell addresses. A reviewer — or you in three months — can then follow the logic without decoding what B7 and D2 were supposed to mean, which is most of what makes a sheet maintainable.
In Google Sheets
Everything above works in Google Sheets too. Excel and Sheets share the formula syntax used here; only the surrounding menus are arranged differently. That portability is deliberate — learn it once and it follows you between the two tools and across Windows and Mac. The aim was to get you unstuck fast and leave you a little more capable than a copy-paste would. The answer is at the top, the tool proves it, and the detail above shows why it holds — so the next time a colleague asks, you can answer without reaching for search. Here is the takeaway for “switch between sheets in excel”: copy the answer if you are busy, but if you have a spare few minutes, rebuild the example in Excel yourself with the tool above open beside it. That single pass — type it, run it, watch the result move when you change an input — is what turns a formula you found into a technique you trust. Keep your inputs labelled and referenced, never hard-coded, and the same sheet stays correct and auditable as it grows. Done that way, you will not need to look this up again, and you will be the person others ask.
Common mistakes
- Clicking the tab-navigation arrows normally and expecting the active sheet to change — a plain click only scrolls which tabs are visible; nothing is activated until an actual tab (or a name from the right-click list) is clicked.
- Trying Ctrl+Tab to move between sheets — that shortcut switches between open Excel WINDOWS/workbooks, not between sheets inside one workbook.
- Assuming the Mac shortcut is identical to Windows — plain Ctrl+Page Down/Up is a Windows pairing; a Mac keyboard without dedicated Page Up/Down keys needs Fn added, or Option+Right/Left Arrow instead.
- Forgetting hidden sheets are skipped entirely by every method above — a sheet that seems to have vanished is usually just hidden, not deleted.
Frequently asked questions
What is the keyboard shortcut to move to the next or previous sheet in Excel?
Ctrl+Page Down for the next sheet, Ctrl+Page Up for the previous one.
How do I jump straight to a sheet without clicking through every tab in between?
Right-click the small ◀▶ tab-navigation arrows at the bottom-left of the window; it opens a list of every sheet name to double-click.
Does Google Sheets use the same shortcuts?
Ctrl+Page Down/Ctrl+Page Up work the same on Windows. On Mac, Sheets differs from Excel: it's Option+Down Arrow / Option+Up Arrow, not Excel's Option+Right/Left Arrow. Sheets also has no right-click tab-arrow menu; instead click the "All sheets" icon (three horizontal lines, to the left of the first tab) for a searchable list of every sheet, including hidden ones.
Other ways people ask this
This is also commonly searched as “excel shortcuts switch between sheets”, “excel switch between sheets” and “how to switch between spreadsheets in excel”. They describe the identical operation, so you are in the right place no matter how you phrased it.
Platform & version notes
- Several of those searches mention Google Sheets — and the good news is that "switch between sheets in excel" works there almost identically: the formula syntax carries over unchanged, only the surrounding menus sit across the top of the screen instead of in a ribbon.
Is there a keyboard shortcut for this?
Yes — “switch between sheets in excel” is one key combination away rather than a trip through the menus. Use the Windows/Mac toggle above to see the exact keys for your machine, and remember Ctrl on Windows maps to ⌘ on Mac.
Can I do this in Google Sheets too?
Yes. "switch between sheets in excel" carries over to Google Sheets with the same formula and almost the same steps — the menus are arranged differently, but the result is identical.