How to make copy of google sheet

A handy thing about Google Sheets is that you can copy the tab from one Google Sheet into another Google Sheet.

This is especially powerful when you spend time building your own customized financial reports and budgets and decide you want to re-use them in another Google Sheet powered by Tiller Money's automated bank data feeds.

A Google spreadsheet can contain one or more sheets. When working with a large amount of information, you can create multiple sheets to help organize your spreadsheet and make it easier to find information.

In this lesson, you'll learn how to create, rename, move, delete, and duplicate sheets.

Using multiple sheets

When you create a new Google spreadsheet, it has one sheet, which is named Sheet1 by default. In the sheets toolbar located at the bottom of the window, you will see a tab for each sheet you have. To organize your spreadsheet and make it easier to navigate, you can create, rename, delete, move, and duplicate sheets.

Watch the video below to learn how to create and manage multiple sheets.

To create a new sheet:

In our example, the sheets of our service log are organized by month. We'll create a new sheet in the log so data can be entered in the new month.

1. Click the Add Sheet command in the sheets toolbar.
   
2. A new sheet will appear in the sheets toolbar.
   

Alternatively, you can create an additional sheet by clicking Insert and selecting New sheet from the drop-down menu.

To rename a sheet:

1. Click the tab of the sheet you want to rename. Select Rename... from the menu that appears.
   
2. Type the desired name for the sheet.
   
3. Click anywhere outside of the tab or press Enter on your keyboard when you're finished, and the sheet will be renamed.
   

To switch to a different sheet:

1. Click the desired sheet tab in the sheets toolbar.
   
2. The selected sheet will appear.
   

If you want to limit collaborators from editing specific sheets of your spreadsheet, you can protect these sheets by clicking the desired sheet tab and selecting Protect sheet... from the menu that appears.

To move a sheet:

1. Click and drag the tab of the sheet you want to move.
   
2. Release the mouse to place the tab at the desired location.
   

To duplicate a sheet:

1. Click the tab of the sheet you want to duplicate, then select Duplicate from the menu that appears.
   
2. A duplicate of the sheet will appear in the sheets toolbar. It will be named as a copy of the original sheet, such as Copy of May. If you want, you can rename the sheet.
   

To copy a sheet to another spreadsheet in Google Drive, click the tab of the sheet you want to copy, then select Copy to... from the menu that appears. Select the spreadsheet where you want to place the copy from the list that appears. A duplicate of the sheet will appear in the other spreadsheet.

When you share a file in Google Drive—be it a Sheet, Doc, Slide, or otherwise—you can choose whether you want someone (or a group of someones) to have "Viewer," "Commenter," or "Editor" permissions.

If they only have Viewer or Commenter permissions, they won't be able to edit the file. To edit it, they'll need to make their own copy by going to File > Make a copy.

But what if you want to let people skip that step? Or you want to avoid having people ask you for edit permission—which you won't give them because you don't want them to edit your file? What you want to do is essentially force people to copy your Google Doc.

Turns out, you can do that with a little-known feature from Google, which I'm now adding to every document I share until the end of time. This is maybe the most underrated and straightforward tip I've ever written about, so I'm going to put it in a large heading with some emoji to make sure you get your money's worth:

🎉 Change "/edit" to "/copy" 🎉

When you select Share and copy the link that Google gives you, the URL will end in

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ 16qfk6DL22LpoilIdaDXCUoGC4NlIs1Xzx3Mrelbtg9s/edit

When you click that, you'll be taken to the spreadsheet itself, and can copy it from the File menu. But if you change /edit to /copy, you get this:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ 16qfk6DL22LpoilIdaDXCUoGC4NlIs1Xzx3Mrelbtg9s/copy

When someone opens that second version, the one that ends in /copy, they'll see this:

The recipient only has the option to copy. 

No more panicking about whether you accidentally gave someone Editor permissions, or having to explain to coworkers, "It's a template! Stop making changes!", or saving "Go to File > Make a copy" as a snippet in your text expander because you type it eight thousand times a day. 

Now it's all right there, and it's beautiful.

Automate the process

If you have a Zap (our word for an automated workflow) with a Google Drive step, you can automatically change the link it provides by adding a Formatter action with the "Replace" transform function.

The action's output can then be sent via email, SMS, or direct message, and the link will take the recipients to the hassle-free "Make a copy" page. 

Zapier is a no-code automation tool that lets you connect your apps into automated workflows, so that every person and every business can move forward at growth speed. Learn more about how it works.

Want to remove the human element entirely, and let automation do all the copying for you? We can help with that, too!

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