Quickly combine multiple worksheets / ranges from workbooks into ... - Free Printable

The image shows a step in a "Combine Workbooks" process, specifically Step 1 of 3, where the user is selecting how to combine data from multiple worksheets.

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🔍 Understanding the Problem

We have two separate worksheets (or tables) with similar data:

#### ✔ First Worksheet:
| Name | Year | Score | Sex |
|------|------|-------|------|
| Dave | 2015 | 161 | male |
| Bob | 2015 | 152 | male |
| John | 2016 | 168 | male |

#### ✔ Second Worksheet:
| Name | Year | Score | Sex |
|-------|------|-------|------|
| Smith | 2016 | 188 | male |
| Jones | 2016 | 165 | male |
| Davis | 2016 | 199 | male |

These are being combined into a single worksheet as shown in the result on the right:

#### ✔ Combined Result:
| Name | Year | Score | Sex |
|-------|------|-------|------|
| Dave | 2015 | 161 | male |
| Bob | 2015 | 152 | male |
| John | 2016 | 168 | male |
| Smith | 2016 | 188 | male |
| Jones | 2016 | 165 | male |
| Davis | 2016 | 199 | male |

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🎯 What Operation Is Being Performed?

Looking at the options:

1. ✔ Combine multiple worksheets from workbooks into one worksheet
→ This matches exactly what's happening: two separate sheets are stacked vertically into one.

2. ✘ Combine all same name worksheets into one worksheet
→ Not applicable; no mention of worksheet names or matching names.

3. ✘ Combine multiple worksheets from workbooks into one workbook
→ That would create a new workbook with multiple sheets — not what’s shown.

4. ✘ Consolidate and calculate values across multiple workbooks into one worksheet
→ This implies aggregation (e.g., summing scores), but here we’re just appending rows, not calculating.

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✔ Correct Answer:

> "Combine multiple worksheets from workbooks into one worksheet"

This operation simply appends the rows from one worksheet to another, preserving all original data without modification or calculation.

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💡 Explanation of Why It Works

- The structure (columns: Name, Year, Score, Sex) is identical.
- Data types and order match.
- No merging, summarizing, or grouping — just stacking.
- This is typical for combining datasets from different sources (e.g., yearly reports).

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✔ Final Step:

Click Next >> to proceed to Step 2, where you’ll likely choose which sheets to include, then Finish to complete the merge.

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🧠 Tip:

Ensure that column headers match exactly and that there are no extra columns or formatting issues before combining. Otherwise, Excel may misalign data.

Let me know if you want help automating this in Excel using Power Query or VBA!