How to Delete Excel File

Learning how to delete Excel file comes in handy sooner or later as you continue your Excel journey.

If you are done creating and editing an Excel project, it is best you delete it rather than keep it longer than necessary.

The benefit of knowing how to delete an Excel file is that you have better control of what happens within your Excel file lists, and you can clear any trash you want.

Read on as we show you how to delete an Excel file and every other Excel trick that will come in handy.

How to Delete Excel File on Windows Explorer

To delete an Excel file using Windows Explorer, navigate to the folder where the file is stored, right-click the file, and select delete.

Select the file and press the delete key on your keyboard.

How to Delete Excel File in Excel

Although probably a less frequently used option, file deletion is also possible within Excel.

You can

• On the ribbon, go to File > Open.
• Locate the right part of the window and select Browse.
• Now, right-click the file you want to delete and select delete.

Delete the Google Sheets file Through Google Drive

Similar to Excel, you can delete a Google Sheet through Google Drive or Google Sheets.

• To delete a file in Google Drive, right-click the file you want to delete and select Remove.
• The selected file will be deleted from your Google Drive.
• Delete a file in Google Sheets.
• To delete a file using Google Sheets, go to File > Move to Trash in the menu.

The result is the same: The file is deleted from Google Drive.

How to Delete Excel File (Removing Personal Information From Excel)

When a file is created in Excel, it automatically stores data about you and your computer setup and other information related to the creation and management of the document.

The worst part is that you may not even know this is happening because the data is not stored in the spreadsheet but in the data for the file itself.

You, therefore, need to remove all personal data from Excel so you can safely send any file out to people.

To do this:

• Go to the File menu (Office button in Excel 2007) and select the Info section from the left side.

• Click the Check for Issues button and Inspect Document: A window will open. Make sure that all of the options in it are checked, and then hit the Inspect button.

• The following window will tell you what kind of data was found in your document and then allow you to remove that data.

• As such, click the Remove All button next to where it says Document Properties and Personal Information.

• If you want to ensure nothing else is in the file now, hit the Reinspect button, rerun the check, and then hit Close.

Now, if you look to the right of the File menu screen again, you can see that the Properties, Author, and Last Modified By information has been removed.

How to Delete Excel File (Deleting Worksheet From Excel 2013)

Sometimes, you may need to delete a worksheet you inserted from a workbook in Excel 2013.

Excel 2013 makes it easy to insert additional worksheets in a workbook by clicking the Insert Worksheet button to the immediate right of the last sheet tab.

To insert new worksheets in a row in the workbook, select a group with the same number of tabs as the number of new worksheets you want to add, starting with the point you want to insert the new worksheets.

Now, click Home→Insert→Insert Sheet on the Ribbon or press Alt+HIS.

Follow these steps to delete a worksheet from the workbook:

• Click the worksheet you want to delete.

• Select Home→Delete→Delete Sheet on the Ribbon, press Alt+HDS, or right-click the tab and then choose Delete from the shortcut menu. If the sheet you’re deleting contains any data, Excel will display a message in an alert box about how you will permanently delete the selected sheets.

• Next, click the Delete or Enter button if you’re sure you won’t lose any data you need when Excel zaps the entire sheet. This is one of those situations where Undo is powerless to put things right by restoring the deleted sheet to the workbook.

To delete a bunch of worksheets from the workbook, select all the worksheets you want to delete and then choose Home→Delete→Delete Sheet, press Alt+HDS, or choose Delete from the tab’s shortcut menu.

When you’re sure you didn’t miss any worksheets, click the Delete button or press Enter when the alert dialogue box appears.

If you find yourself constantly adding new worksheets, you may want to change the default number so that the next time you open a new workbook, you have a more realistic number of sheets on hand.

To change the default number, choose File→Options or press Alt+FT to open the General tab of the Excel Options dialogue box.

Next, enter a new number between 1 and 255 in the Include This Many Sheets text box in the When Creating New Workbooks section, or select a unique number with the spinner buttons before you click OK.

You can easily add worksheets to Excel or delete unwanted ones. You can also rename a worksheet to describe the data being presented accurately.

How to Insert Additional Worksheet

You may need to insert additional data into a workbook that belongs in a separate worksheet.

To do this:

• Click the Insert button list arrow on the Home tab.

• Select Insert Sheet. Next, Click the New Sheet button at the bottom of the workbook window, to the right of the last sheet tab.

A new worksheet will be added to the workbook.

How to Rename a Worksheet

Excel worksheets are default given generic names, such as Sheet 1 or 2. However, you can give them more meaningful names.

• Click the Format button on the Home tab.
• Select Rename Sheet. Double-click the tab for the worksheet you want to rename.
• Type a new name for the worksheet.
• Press Enter.

The worksheet is renamed.

How to Change Tab Color In Excel Sheet

Changing the tab colour can also keep your worksheets a bit more organized.

• Click the Format button on the Home tab.
• Select Tab Color. Right-click a sheet tab and select Tab Color.
• Select a tab colour.

Now the tab is shaded with the colour you chose.

Conclusion

If you are a new or consistent user of Excel, deleting a file or sheet on Excel will not be a daunting problem while using the above steps.

We have given you different ways on how to delete Excel file, insert new worksheets or rename a worksheet in the guide above.

We hope the article is informative and useful. Don’t forget to share.