Enter data simultaneously on multiple sheets.

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Q. I prepare one worksheet for each month of the year and I need to add the same data to some of those worksheets. What I've been doing is setting up the first worksheet with the appropriate data and then copying them to the other sheets that require the same data. As you can imagine, it's a lot of grunt work. Is there an easier way to do this?

A. Yes, there is. The trick is to first group the worksheets in which you want to enter the common data. Then you even can add formulas and formats at the same time and get three solutions for the price of one.

When you group worksheets, what you do in one sheet is automatically copied to all the others in the group. You can group two or more consecutive (for example, January, February, March) or nonconsecutive worksheets (January, March, 2001).

Let's do the consecutive sheets first. Click on the tab of the first worksheet, and while holding down the Shift key, click on the tab of the last sheet in the group. That will group all the sheets between the first and last sheet tab.

To group nonconsecutive sheets (such as January, February, April), click on the tab of the first worksheet, hold down the Ctrl button and click on any of the sheets you want included in the group. The worksheets you select will appear in white, as shown below.

Now any data, formula or formatting that you enter or apply in one worksheet will appear simultaneously in the others.