Change the Tab Color of a Worksheet

SUMMARY: Tabs representing different worksheets in an Excel 2010 workbook can be colored for organizational purposes.

If you are editing a Microsoft Excel 2010 workbook containing multiple worksheets, you probably use the tabs at the bottom-left of the window to switch between them.

Instead of displaying all tabs in the same color, you might find it useful, especially if you have many tabs, to give them different colors. You might want to organize all worksheets related to a particular year in one color, or change tab colors representing P&L worksheets of particular quarters if the organization was in the red or black. You could also make every tab a different color for variety so you can tell people accounting is not boring.


1. Right-click a tab.

2. When the pop-up menu appears, select “Tab Color”.

3. A secondary pop-up menu appears. Now you can choose a color from the theme or standard colors, or click “No Color” to remove the color.

If you want more color choices, click “More Colors” from the secondary popup to display a “Colors” dialog box. Here you can choose any color.