Split Excel by Sheet
Extract individual sheets from an Excel file into separate .xlsx files. Your file never leaves your device.
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100% private
Your files are processed locally and never uploaded to our servers.
Extract individual sheets from an Excel file into separate .xlsx files. Your file never leaves your device.
100% private
Your files are processed locally and never uploaded to our servers.
Split Excel by Sheet lets you split Excel sheets into separate files in your browser: drop in an .xlsx workbook, pick the tabs you want, and each one comes back as its own .xlsx with its formatting intact. The usual reason is sharing. A monthly close workbook has a tab for each of 14 regions, and each regional manager should get their own numbers and nobody else's. In Excel that's 14 rounds of right-click, Move or Copy, tick a box, save, rename.
The original workbook isn't touched. The tool only reads it and writes new files.
Each new file keeps the sheet's cell formatting and layout, plus every formula that only uses cells on that sheet.
| In the original sheet | In the split file |
|---|---|
| A ZIP code formatted 00000 showing 02134 | Still shows 02134 |
| Currency and date formats | Same symbol, same date format |
| Fonts, fill colors, borders, alignment | Kept |
| Merged cells | Kept |
| Column widths and row heights | Kept |
| Frozen panes | Kept |
| Data validation dropdowns | Kept, unless the list is on another sheet |
| Conditional formatting | Kept, unless its rule reads another sheet |
| Excel tables | Kept as tables |
| Cell notes and images | Kept |
| Formulas using cells on the same sheet | Still live formulas |
| Named ranges that point only at this sheet | Carried into the new file, so formulas using them still work |
| The sheet name | Kept as the tab name |
File names use the sheet name, accents and all, so a tab called Données produces a file with Données in its name. Spaces and the characters file systems reject (\ / : * ? " < > |) each become _, and a run of them collapses to one, so a tab called Actual | Budget gives a file name ending in Actual_Budget. Inside the file, the tab keeps its exact name, spaces and pipe included.
A few things can't come across as they were, and the result box counts each one. A dropdown whose list lives on another sheet, or a conditional format whose rule reads one, is removed rather than left pointing at a sheet the file doesn't have. Validation built on a relative cell reference is left out rather than copied wrong. A table whose calculated or totals columns the tool can't read arrives as a plain range, values and formatting intact.
Hidden sheets show up in the list like any other. You can split out a sheet someone hid years ago without unhiding it in Excel first.
The number formats matter more than they look. A ZIP code column that loses its 00000 format turns 02134 into 2134 in the recipient's copy, and nobody notices until a mail merge fails.
A formula such as =Rates!A1*2 can't work in a file that has no Rates sheet, so this tool replaces it with the last value it calculated. The same goes for formulas pointing at another workbook, at a named range on another sheet, or at a table on another sheet. The cell keeps its number format, so a price still shows as $1,240.00, and the result box tells you how many formulas were swapped.
Excel's own Move or Copy treats the same formulas differently, and the result is worse because it doesn't look broken.
When you copy a sheet to a new book with Move or Copy, Excel rewrites every reference to another sheet as a link back to the original file. =Rates!A1*2 becomes =[Pricing.xlsx]Rates!A1*2. The numbers look right when you send it. Then the recipient opens the file and sees a yellow bar reading "Automatic update of links has been disabled", on formulas that point at a file on your drive they will never have. If they click Enable Content, Excel goes looking for Pricing.xlsx and complains when it can't find it.
The fix in Excel is to break the links before you send. Go to Data > Queries & Connections > Workbook Links, and in the pane that opens choose Break links. Excel turns each linked formula into its current value, the same trade this tool makes. On a workbook with 14 regional tabs, you do that 14 times.
If the formulas need to stay live, split differently. Ctrl-click the summary tab and the Rates tab together and move them into the same new book in one Move or Copy. References between sheets that travel together stay internal.
It moves by default. The dialog only copies if you tick Create a copy. Leave it unticked and the sheet leaves the original workbook. Any formulas on the sheets left behind now point at the new book.
Several tabs go into one file. Ctrl-click four tabs and send them to (new book), and you get one workbook with four sheets, not four files. Each file needs its own pass through the dialog.
Hidden tabs can't be picked. Unhide the sheet first (right-click any tab, Unhide), then remember to hide it again in the original.
The VBA route has its own snag. The standard macro loops through the sheets and saves each copy under the sheet's name. Excel permits characters in sheet names that Windows won't allow in a file name, such as <, > and |, so a tab named Q1 <draft> stops the macro with run-time error 1004.
For two or three sheets, Excel's own route is fine. Right-click the sheet tab, choose Move or Copy, set To book to (new book), tick Create a copy, and click OK. A new workbook opens holding that sheet. Save it with File > Save As. That's roughly eight clicks and a file name per sheet, plus the Workbook Links pass above if the sheet referenced other tabs.
For dozens of sheets, the other built-in option is a VBA macro that runs Worksheet.Copy and SaveAs in a loop. The macro needs somewhere to live, such as a module in the workbook or your PERSONAL.XLSB, plus macros enabled and a folder to save into. Many company machines block macros outright.
Stay in Excel when the sheet has charts, pivot tables or slicers you need in the new file, when the source is .xls or .xlsm and you'd rather not re-save it, when the workbook is over 50 MB, or when cross-sheet formulas have to keep recalculating.
To send a sheet as a CSV instead of a workbook, use Excel to CSV.
Drop the .xlsx on this page, untick any sheets you don't need and click the Split button. Several sheets download as one .zip holding an .xlsx per sheet, each named after the workbook and the sheet. In Excel itself the same job is Move or Copy, once per tab.
Tick only that sheet and click Split, and it downloads as its own .xlsx rather than a .zip. The None link clears every box, so you can tick the one you want. A workbook that has only one sheet is saved as a new file the moment you drop it.
They are replaced with their last calculated value, because the sheet they point at isn't in the new file. The number formatting stays, and the result tells you how many formulas were replaced. Formulas that only use cells on the same sheet stay live.
In Excel, copy the sheet with Move or Copy, then go to Data > Queries & Connections > Workbook Links and choose Break links. That turns every formula pointing at the old file into its current value. This tool makes the same swap on its own, and only for formulas that point outside the sheet.
Yes. Each new file keeps number formats, fonts, fills, borders, merged cells, column widths, row heights, frozen panes, dropdowns, conditional formatting, cell notes and images. A dropdown or conditional format that reads another sheet is removed, since that sheet isn't in the new file. Charts, pivot tables, slicers and form controls are not carried over.
No, the tool accepts .xlsx only. Open the file in Excel, use File > Save As, choose Excel Workbook (*.xlsx), and drop that copy in. Macros won't come across, because an .xlsx can't hold them.
No, this tool splits by sheet only. To give each region its own file, put each region's rows on its own sheet in Excel first, then split the workbook.