Go To Specific Part of Excel Worksheet

How can you quickly move around an Excel worksheet? That's what Andrea asked in a recent comment:

  • How do I "go to" a specific page of my worksheet. I have 23 pages and do not want to keep scrolling. I cannot find how to do this as on Word.

Of course, Andrea is correct, and there is no built-in page navigation for Excel, like Word has. What would you recommend for Andrea? Here are a couple of my favourite techniques, and please add your suggestions in the comments.

Navigating in Microsoft Word

In Word, you can click the buttons at the bottom right, to quickly go to the next or or previous page.


You can also double-click on the page count section of the status bar, type a page number, and press Enter, to go to a specific page.


Worksheet Pages in Excel

In Excel, we don't have those handy page navigation features. You can scroll down through the rows, with no hint as to what page you're on, if the worksheet has multiple printed pages.


Or, add the page number to the header or footer, and scroll in Page Layout view, where you can see those numbers.


Create a Table of Contents

If you'd like a structured way to move around the worksheet, you can create a worksheet table of contents. With this technique, you add section headings, with hyperlinks to those headings, at the top of the worksheet.

Then, click a hyperlink, to go to that section.


Create Named Ranges

For a quicker and easier method, you can skip the hyperlinks, and simply go with named ranges. If you're the only person using the workbook, you could use this simple navigation system.

In a long worksheet, you would most likely have heading cells, which you can name. In this screenshot, cell B9 is named as Income.


Then, go to any named range, by selecting its name from the Name Box drop down list.


Other Ways to Navigate

Excel isn't set up to deal with page navigation, but one of these suggestions might help Andrea work around this limitation. Do you have other techniques that you use in large worksheets?


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9 Responses

  1. Yard says:

    Once you have some named formulas set up to refer to your key ranges, the keyboard shortcut F5 is a great way to go to it.

    Even better: hit F5, then Tab, then the first letter of the range you want.

  2. Jim Cone says:

    Or possibly…
    1. Set the worksheet zoom (magnification) setting to 50%
    2. Use Page Break Preview
    Jim Cone
    Portland, Oregon USA
    (Formats & Styles xl add-in: lists/removes unused styles & number formats) – free

  3. Christopher Amott says:

    There is an add-in available on this very web site that allows you to alphabetically sort your worksheets and then provides a handy drop down list from which you make a selection. You are then taken to your selected worksheet. I find this add-in invaluable for workbooks which have in excess of 10 worksheets.

  4. Cliff says:

    Right-Click on the navigation arrows at the bottom left-hand side, and a list of the sheets will pop-up.

  5. Bob Ryan says:

    Debra – View > Page Break Preview is also my vote, but I’m curious. Do you know why Andrea finds it necessary to go to different pages of a worksheet? Is Andrea willing to share a sanitized version of the worksheet?

  6. Exshail says:

    Also use free workbook navigation excel addins created for this from http://exshail.web.officelive.com/Addins.aspx.
    1. Index of all Sheet Names in separate worksheet with hyperlink.
    2. Sort sheets ascending or descending, Create
    emove multiple windows.
    3. Synchronize all the sheets to view same area in the worksheet.
    4. Display fullpath of Active Workbook in its Toolbar Button.
    5. Full Screen View.
    6. Can Highlights Entire Row.
    7. Can Shows Sheet name in window caption.

  7. Exshail says:

    Besides you can use simple macro to activate your desired worksheets.
    Sub SheetActivate()
    ‘assigne shortcut Key

    If Application.CommandBars(“workbook tabs”).Controls(16).Caption Like “More Sheets*” Then Application.SendKeys “{end}~”

    Application.CommandBars(“workbook tabs”).ShowPopup

    End Sub

  8. Tyron says:

    I am actually suprised that no one suggested command buttons located around the worksheet that, once depressed, would take you to other locations within the sheet.

    This is what I was looking for, but guess I need to look somewhere else. I do however like the idea of how to use hyperlinks and named ranges, but was suprised that there wasn’t any step by step instructions available on this main page as I have seen on other excel websites.


  9. Ann says:

    Another thing that is very cool with the GoTo (F5) function is holding the SHIFT key when you hit Enter. You could click on cell A40, for example, and then press F5 and type “V40” in the dialog box. Hold down the SHIFT key when you press Enter and Excel SELECTS all the cells in the range A40:V40. I find this a very handy way to select cells when I’m working with similar chunks of data for copying, formatting, whatever. It ensures that you don’t overshoot when selecting cells.

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