Organising sheets and workbook structure in Grid

A good workbook is organised before it's clever. Grid by Zaweba gives you the tools to arrange sheets, keep headings in view, fold away detail and look at two parts of a workbook side by side. None of them changes a single figure, but all of them make the figures easier to work with.

Arranging sheets

Insert, delete and rename sheets from the sheet tabs. Give each a short, clear name, since that name appears in every formula that refers to it. Move or copy a sheet to change the order, and duplicate a sheet when you need another with the same layout, such as next month's budget, which then needs only its figures changing.

Tab colours help when there are many sheets. A common scheme is one colour for input sheets, another for calculations and another for reports, so anyone can see at a glance where to type and where to look. Hide sheets that hold lookup tables or settings that nobody needs to see day to day; unhide them when you need to make a change.

Two views of one workbook

Opening a new window on the same workbook gives you two views of it at once. Put the input sheet in one and the summary in the other, change a figure and watch the summary respond. Both windows are the same workbook, so there's nothing to keep in step.

Freeze panes

Freeze panes keeps the top rows, the left columns or both on screen while you scroll. Freeze the header row of a long list so you always know which column is which, or freeze the first column of a wide sheet so names stay visible as you scroll across months. It's the single most useful layout setting for any list longer than a screen.

Hiding, merging and grouping

Hide rows and columns that hold working you don't want on show, such as helper columns. Remember that hidden cells still count in plain SUM formulas; use SUBTOTAL for totals that should follow what's visible.

Merging cells joins several into one, which suits a title across the top of a report. Use it sparingly in the data area itself, because merged cells get in the way of sorting, filling and selecting columns. For a heading over several columns, merging only the title row keeps the data below clean.

Grouping rows adds an outline, so a block of detail rows can be collapsed under a heading and expanded again when needed. A yearly budget can show twelve monthly blocks that fold down to their totals for a quick overview. Outline levels are kept in .xlsx files, so the grouping survives when you share the workbook.

A structure that lasts

Keep raw data, calculations and reports apart where you can. Inputs on one sheet, workings on another and a summary on a third makes a workbook easier to check and to hand over. Use names for key cells so formulas across sheets read clearly, and freeze headers on every long list.

Before deleting a sheet, check whether other sheets refer to it. Trace dependents or a Find in formulas for the sheet name will show you. Undo will bring a deleted sheet back if you catch it straight away.

Spend a few minutes on structure when you start a workbook in Grid by Zaweba and every later change is easier to make.