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: Telling which Worksheets are Selected.

Telling which Worksheets are Selected

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 20, 2024)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

When writing a macro that does some type of processing on different worksheets, you may need to figure out which worksheets were selected by a user before the macro was run. The way you do this is to use the SelectedSheets property. (Well, it is technically a property, but it acts in many ways like a collection.) The following simple macro displays the names of each worksheet that is currently selected:

Sub ShowSheets()
    Dim aSheet As Variant

    For Each aSheet In ActiveWindow.SelectedSheets
        MsgBox aSheet.Name
    Next aSheet
End Sub

Once you understand how to get the worksheet names, they can be put into an array or used in any other way deemed necessary.

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 (2783) 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: Telling which Worksheets are Selected.

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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