Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Office 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Creating a Workbook Clone.

Creating a Workbook Clone

by Allen Wyatt
(last updated June 19, 2021)

1

There may be times when you want to make a copy of a workbook, without affecting the original. Excel provides an easy way to do this. Simply follow these steps:

  1. Display the Open dialog box. (If you are using Excel 2007, click the Office button and then click on Open. If you are using Excel 2010, click the File tab of the ribbon and then click Open. If you are using Excel 2013 or a later version, click the File tab of the ribbon, click Open, then click Computer, and finally click Browse.) Excel displays the standard Open dialog box.
  2. Select the workbook you want to make a copy of.
  3. Click on the down-arrow just to the right of the Open button. Excel displays a list of different ways you can open the selected workbook.
  4. Choose the Open As Copy option. Excel opens a copy of the workbook.

The workbook that is opened uses the same file name, but Excel attaches some sort of phrase to the beginning of the file name, as a prefix. For instance, you might see the file name prefixed with "Copy of" or "Copy (1)." Thus, if the original workbook you selected in step 2 is named "Budget.xlsx," what Excel creates is a workbook named "Copy of Budget.xlsx" or "Copy (1)Budget.xlsx." If you want to rename the file, you will need to either use the Save As command, or rename the workbook after closing it.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (8036) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Office 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Creating a Workbook Clone.

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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What is 7 + 4?

2021-06-19 09:01:23

Steven Basford

Workbook clone: using Windows Explorer, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V takes about one second to create the clone.

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