Deselecting multiple tabs in Excel

I had an interesting problem in Excel earlier this year, where I had selected multiple tabs in a workbook to change the tab colour, and suddenly found myself unable to deselect them again. I tried the standard thing, where I simply closed the workbook, and hoped to find - on reopening - that the problem had sorted itself out.

It hadn't.

So I did a search for "how to deselect multiple tabs in Excel". A great post by Excel Learner (2022) popped up, giving me very clear instructions for three methods to deselect those pesky worksheets.

Firstly, I could "press and hold the Ctrl key" and click those tabs I wanted "to deselect using [my left] mouse" button (Excel Learner, 2022). I did that, and the problem seemed to reverse, then stop. So whatever had occurred, that was a great fix for me.

Secondly, we can "press and hold the Shift key, and then use our mouse left key to click the first excel worksheet and the last excel worksheet, then all the worksheets between the start and the end worksheet will be selected" (Excel Learner, 2022).

Thirdly, we can "right-click any one worksheet in the excel workbook, and then click the Select All Sheets menu item in the popup menu list", and "all the worksheets in the excel workbook" will be selected. To "deselect them all, you can right-click any one worksheet and then click the Ungroup Sheets menu item in the popup menu list" (Excel Learner, 2022).

I hope one of those options works for you too!

Sam

References:

Excel Learner. (2022, July 31). How To Select/Deselect Multiple Or All Worksheets In Excel Workbook. https://www.excel-learner.com/how-to-select-deselect-multiple-or-all-worksheets-in-excel-workbook/