Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Sheets for Months.

Sheets for Months

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 30, 2024)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


When you are starting a new workbook, it is very common to name each worksheet after a different month of the year. If you do this quite a bit, you know it can be tiresome to rename each worksheet, in turn, to exactly what you need.

The following macro was developed to help in these situations. It checks the names of the worksheets in your workbook, renaming them to the months of the year if they begin with the letters "Sheet". If there are not enough sheets in the workbook, it adds sheets, as necessary, for each month of the year.

Sub DoMonths()
    Dim J As Integer
    Dim K As Integer
    Dim sMo(12) As String

    sMo(1) = "January"
    sMo(2) = "February"
    sMo(3) = "March"
    sMo(4) = "April"
    sMo(5) = "May"
    sMo(6) = "June"
    sMo(7) = "July"
    sMo(8) = "August"
    sMo(9) = "September"
    sMo(10) = "October"
    sMo(11) = "November"
    sMo(12) = "December"

    For J = 1 To 12
        If J <= Sheets.Count Then
            If Left(Sheets(J).Name, 5) = "Sheet" Then
                Sheets(J).Name = sMo(J)
            Else
                Sheets.Add.Move after:=Sheets(Sheets.Count)
                ActiveSheet.Name = sMo(J)
            End If
        Else
            Sheets.Add.Move after:=Sheets(Sheets.Count)
            ActiveSheet.Name = sMo(J)
        End If
    Next J

    For J = 1 To 12
        If Sheets(J).Name <> sMo(J) Then
            For K = J + 1 To Sheets.Count
                If Sheets(K).Name = sMo(J) Then
                    Sheets(K).Move Before:=Sheets(J)
                End If
            Next K
        End If
    Next J

    Sheets(1).Activate
End Sub

The last step in the macro is that it places the worksheets in proper order, for the months 1 through 12. The result is that if you have any other worksheets left in the workbook (in other words, you had some that did not begin with the letters "Sheet", then those worksheets end up at the end of the workbook, after the 12 months.

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the ExcelTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2017) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Sheets for Months.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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