Dynamic Worksheet Tab Names

You probably already know that you can change the name of a worksheet tab by double-clicking on the tab and providing a new name. What if you want to do it dynamically, however? What if you want to have the value in cell A1 automatically appear as the tab name?

Unfortunately, Excel doesn't provide an intrinsic function to handle this sort of task. It is a relatively simply task to develop such a function using a macro that will do the job for you. For instance, the following macro will change the tab name to the contents of A1:

Sub myTabName()
    ActiveSheet.Name = ActiveSheet.Range("A1")
End Sub

There are several important items to note about this macro. First of all, there is no error checking. This means that if A1 contains a value that would be illegal for a tab name (such as nothing at all or more than 31 characters), then the macro generates an error. Second, the macro must be manually run.

What if you want a more robust macro that does check for errors and runs automatically? The result is a bit longer, but still not overly complex:

Private Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Excel.Range)
    Set Target = Range("A1")
    If Target = "" Then Exit Sub
    On Error GoTo Badname
    ActiveSheet.Name = Left(Target, 31)
    Exit Sub
Badname:
    MsgBox "Please revise the entry in A1." & Chr(13) _
    & "It appears to contain one or more " & Chr(13) _
    & "illegal characters." & Chr(13)
    Range("A1").Activate
End Sub

To set up this macro, follow these steps:

1. Open a new workbook that has only one worksheet in it.
2. Right-click the worksheet tab and select View Code from the resulting Context menu. Excel displays the VBA Editor.
3. Paste (or type) the above macro into the code window.
4. Close the VBA Editor.
5. Locate the XLStart folder on your system. (Use the Windows search capabilities to locate the folder.)
6. Save the workbook as an Excel template using the name BOOK.XLT in the XLStart directory. This causes the template to become your pattern for any new workbook you create.
7. Again save the workbook as a template in the same directory, this time using the name SHEET.XLT. This causes the template to become the pattern for any new worksheets you insert in a workbook.
8. Close and restart Excel.

Now, anytime you change the value in cell A1, the worksheet tab also updates.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2145) 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: Dynamic Worksheet Tab Names.