How to Auto Create Sheet Tabs and Table of Contents with Hyperlinks in Excel

In this tutorial, I’ll will walk you through the process of automatically creating multiple sheet tabs from a list of values in Excel, and generating a table of contents with hyperlinks, allowing you to navigate seamlessly through your workbook.

Step 1: Organize Your Data Begin by organizing your data in Excel. Create a list of all the sheets you want to include in your workbook. Ensure that the list is properly formatted and located within your Excel workbook.

Step 2: Insert a Pivot Table

1. Click on the "Insert" tab in Excel.

2. Select "PivotTable" from the options.

3. Choose the range of data that includes your list of sheet names.

4. Opt to place the PivotTable in the existing worksheet.

5. Select a cell to place the PivotTable and click "OK".

Step 3: Set Up Pivot Table Filters

1. Drag the header of your list into the filters area of the PivotTable.

2. Navigate to the "PivotTable Analyze" tab.

3. Under PivotTable Name, click on the “Options” dropdown and select "Show Report Filter Pages".

4. Choose your index column and click "OK".

Step 4: Arrange Sheet Tabs

1. Once the sheet tabs are generated, you may notice they are in alphabetical order.

2. Rearrange the tabs according to your preferred order by dragging and dropping them.

Step 5: Remove Pivot Tables from Tabs

1. Select the first newly generated tab and notice it contains the Pivot Table filter.

2. Hold the Shift key and select the last tab that was generated so that all the newly crated sheet tabs are “selected”.

3. On any one of the highlighted sheets, select the columns containing the PivotTable filters.

4. Right-click and choose "Clear Contents" to remove the PivotTable and this removes the Pivot Table from all selected tabs.

Step 6: Delete Unnecessary Tabs

1. Delete the PivotTable from the main sheet, you no longer need it.

2. Copy the data from the original sheet (if applicable) to preserve information.

3. Delete any unnecessary tabs to streamline your workbook.

Step 7: Create Hyperlinks for Table of Contents

1. In a new column, label it as "Link to Tab" or “Hyperlinks” (or any other header label as needed).

2. Format your data into a table.

3. Insert the hyperlink formula used in this video (replace "Index" with your own sheet name):
   =HYPERLINK("#'"&[@Index]&"'!A1",[@Index])

4. Auto fill in Excel will copy the formula down the column and create hyperlinks to each sheet tab.

Step 8: Link Back to Table of Contents

1. Navigate to the first sheet where you want to create a hyperlink back to the table of contents.

2. Select the cell where you want the hyperlink.

3. Click on "Insert" > "Link" > "Place in this Document".

4. Select the master sheet table of contents and customize the link text if desired.

5. Copy this link back to the master sheet and paste it on every tab where you want to have it link back to the master sheet Table of Contents.

Step 9: Test and Finalize

1. Test all hyperlinks to ensure they navigate correctly.

2. Make any final adjustments to formatting or layout.

3. Save your Excel workbook.

Conclusion: Congratulations! You've successfully created sheet tabs and a table of contents with hyperlinks in Excel, making navigation through your workbook more efficient and organized.

If you already have your sheet tabs, but not a listing of them to create your master sheet table of contents, you can watch this video to see how to generate a list of all your sheet tabs using Power Query - this is a very easy techniqe!