Forum Discussion
Tabs in Excel Online worksheet move unexpectedly
We use a shared Excel Online worksheet that is concurrently accessed by approx. 50 users. The tabs are all named by date and we keep about 3 months of dates available at any time. Periodically, the current date's tab will move for no reason to somewhere random (could be in an earlier or later date tab position). The user's get confused when they are trying to find the current date and have to hunt through all the tabs to find it. We then have to manually drag it back to its correct place in the tab timeline. No one can recreate the problem. Is there a setting we can turn on to activate tab locking? Or has there been a problem reported in the past that a fix exists for? Thanks in advance for your help....
49 Replies
For me the tabs move when I have chosen to "Save as Adobe PDF" from the File menu. If I do not ask for all the worksheet to be included in the PDF then all the excluded worksheet tabs are moved to the end of the worksheet tabs when the save has completed.
It feels like there is a bug that has moved the tabs so the worksheets selected for adding to the PDF are all contiguous, but that they have not been reverted to their original positions once the PDF creation process has finished.
- I have also been having tabs move after "Save as Adobe PDF"... it definitely appears to be a bug (that should be fixed, please) but the very first solution in this thread works for me... Review > Protect Workbook > (Structure)
The password is optional, so allows others to use the same spreadsheet... they just need to "unprotect" the workbook temporarily if adding sheets. And then remember to protect the workbook structure again.
I can imagine that this may not be convenient for every situation, but it should be a reasonably painless workaround for most.
However, Microsoft, sort out the bug, please. Thank you.GRKS Thank you for your suggestion. I rarely save my Excel to a pdf so that's interesting you would recognize. My tabs have remained still for quite a while so maybe MS fixed? Unfortunately, protecting all the sheets I manage and share on a daily basis is not ideal and would cause more confusion and frustration. For example, I introduced Excel to my department 4 years ago and the managers are just NOW at the beginning stages of being comfortable and trying things on their own. A simple filter still freaks them out when they can't find their info. It's also not just the tabs that move, it's the column widths that shrink which is infuriating.
tstrueby Having the same issue since beginning 2022, did not have this last year. Private Excel doc on Onedrive only I use, and tabs tend to jump randomly now and then. Seems to be only the tabs that I'm currently on or have been on recently.
Does anyone have a solution for this?
Version: Microsoft® Excel® for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2201 Build 16.0.14827.20158) 64-bit
So, I finally figured this out I believe, at least for us. When you open an Excel Doc in a web browser, and click on a tab, it automatically puts you in "move tab". You have to click twice on a tab to switch to it without being in "move tab". Not sure if this is an Excel bug or a Browser bug (Chrome in my case). But protecting the workbook structure fixes it, or just using it in desktop mode.
- Not just limited to Chrome. I'm using office in Edge (because I think I'm going to have some sort of experience using MS office within MS browser?). Still does it. I say Excel bug - er - quirk...
- Thank you!!!
awilcoxThis is the solution! If you click on a tab just one time and then move your mouse pointer to another tab, you'll see a small "move" arrow. Wherever you click, it will move your tab to this location. If you don't want your tab to move, you must click your original tab one more time. Now, when you move your mouse pointer to another tab, you'll see that there is no "move" arrow this time. Thanks!
ThomasVarshalOh my goodness, you are absolutely correct!!! AND, this is absurd default behavior!
Yes, so when you click a tab, it auto activates the "move" arrow. Clicking the tab again deactivates the move arrow.
It should be the EXACT OPPOPSITE. Clicking once should do nothing more than select the tab, period, end of action. If I want to move it I can manually drag it, or Microsoft could make it optional that if a tab is clicked a second time, THEN it activates the move arrow.
Thank you for discovering this!!!
I have noticed this behaviour when exporting multiple tabs to PDF - Excel always moves one of the tabs to the leftmost position after exporting to pdf. I think it is a bug.
I am selecting the tabs in the add/remove pop-up after selecting Export from the File Ribbon
tstrueby Did you find a solution for this in the meantime ?
I have 2 users who just started using Teams and they are facing this problem.
Tabs randomly move and are not sorted alphabetically so nothing to go on here.
Many thanks already !
Looking forward to your reply.
benjamingenne We've had MANY issues using Excel in Teams. Not impressed with Teams or online Excel. I like the concept but it's caused more jumping through hoops, problems, and multiple documents being saved because Teams saw someone (like me) in the spreadsheet when we clearly weren't.
we have been using an excel to enter our timesheets since the last 3 months.So a tab was added for each day. And everyday i see the tabs being moved to a different place . 😞 it really frustrates the team a lot since they have to spend a lot of time every day to find where the present day's tab is located 😞 Hope there is a fix for this sooner.
Sorry, benjamingenne - no solution yet. Based on the comments by other users on this thread, I am convinced something is not working as it should but no solution has been developed. We are still manually moving tabs back to their proper spots in our shared worksheets when we notice them moved elsewhere for no reason.
tstrueby Thank you for your reply !
Looking forward to a solution then. They will need to manually move if it then if needed.
tstrueby They seem to rearrange themselves in alphabetical order. I have a spreadsheet with six tabs in two week intervals. I've found that adding an "a" "b" "c" to the beginning of the dates keeps them in the correct order. Hope this helps!
I don't know if you will still get this but please could you explain your workaround?
DocControlJessUnfortunately, that doesn't help. In fact, I'm actively *trying* to keep my worksheets in alphabetical order ... that's how I know (and why it's so frustrating) when Excel Online suddenly moves one. Just yesterday I was working along and everything was fine. I clicked into another window and worked in Outlook for awhile - when I returned to Excel Online the "Vistar" worksheet I'd been working in (that had been sitting between "Varidesk" and "Xerox" was suddenly up with my "C" vendors - between the "Canteen" and "Convergint" tabs. Super frustrating trying to drag it back where it belongs when working with multiple tabs (sheets) in one workbook.
- Agreed. Definitely NOT kept in alphabetical order.
DocControlJess , great finding.
tstrueby , you may open that workbook in desktop client and protect the structure (Review->Protect Workbook)
That could be a bug, but having up to hundred sheets ans 50 users they could move sheets unintentionally from time to time, it's easy to drag jumping from one sheet to another.
SergeiBaklan Doesn't matter if the sheets are protected. The tabs still move. Another thing that happens is that even though I save and save the spreadsheet on a specific tab and for it to open at the top (ie, show from cell A1), the sheet(s) will ultimately open way over in blank cells like CD55. Neither spreadsheet has more than 15 tabs. So far I am not very impressed with online Excel. Too many features are lacking and the collaboration portion has caused more stress and jumping through hoops.
kstone7_iuh I've been having the same problem (tabs moving around, yes... but more importantly, the focus cell randomly moving to a blank area of the sheet) pretty much since Day 1 of using Excel Online (probably around 6 years ago).
Honestly, I can deal with the tabs moving around--not ideal, but also just a minor annoyance. Luckily none of my tabs' positions are critical to the functionality of the workbook. And it doesn't seem to be as prevalent a problem as before, so it seems like they've at least tried to fix this.
However, the fact that every time I move to a different tab, then move back to the tab I was just on and suddenly I'm in a cell several hundred rows below where I just was two seconds ago is infuriating and such a waste of my time. I'm constantly scrolling up and over or hitting Ctrl+Up to find my place again.
Microsoft, please develop a fix for this NOW!
SergeiBaklan We have a smaller organization and we are having the exact same issue with tabs moving. we only have about 5 people in a document at once and unless we lock the document, tabs move randomly. Highly irritating because having to unlock and password protect each tab to work in them isn't efficient.
SergeiBaklanI've encountered the same problem, and I've been searching for a solution for months. I'm one of only two users in the spreadsheet where it happens most frequently, so I am certain it's not another user moving tabs. Like the OP I've tried to recreate the problem but have been unsuccessful. I'll be in one tab, entering data, then I'll click over to another program (check my email, for example). When I click back to Excel Online, I'm still in the same tab. But as soon as I click a different tab, the old tab moves next to the new tab I clicked on, and I'm forced to drag it back where it belongs. Locking the sheet isn't an option for me, as worksheets must be added and removed frequently.
Just wanted to add my voice to others having this problem.
Also having this same issue with shared Excel files in OneDrive
Hitstrueby
I've had this problem reported by an number of teams in our organisation. No idea why or how it's happening. I came on here to see if there was any information.
