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How to split a workbook to separate Excel files in Excel?

You may need to split a large workbook to separate Excel files with saving each worksheet of the workbook as an individual Excel file. For example, you can split a workbook into multiple individual Excel files and then deliver each file to different person to handle it. By doing so, you can get certain persons handle specific data, and keep your data safe. This article will introduce ways to split a large workbook to separate Excel files based on each worksheet.

  1. Split a workbook to separate Excel files with copying and pasting
  2. Split a workbook to separate Excel Files with Move or Copy feature
  3. Split a workbook to separate Excel files with VBA code
  4. Split a workbook to separate Excel / PDF / CSV / TXT files with Kutools for Excel easily

Split a workbook to separate Excel files with copying and pasting

In usual, using Copy command and Paste command can save a workbook as a Separate Excel file manually. Firstly, select the whole worksheet that you want to save as a separate file, create a new workbook, and then paste it in the new workbook, at the end saves it.

This is an easy-to-use way if you need to split only a few worksheets as separate files. However, it must be time-consuming and tedious to split many worksheets with copying and pasting manually.


Split a workbook to separate Excel Files with Move or Copy feature

This method will introduce the Move or Copy feature to move or copy the selected sheets to a new workbook and save as a separate workbook. Please do as follows:

1. Select the sheets in the Sheet tab bar, right click, and select Move or Copy from the context menu. See screenshot:

Note: Holding Ctrl key, you can select multiple nonadjacent sheets with clicking them one by one in the Sheet tab bar; holding Shift key, you can select multiple adjacent sheets with clicking the first one and the last one in the Sheet tab bar.

2. In the Move or Copy dialog, select (new book) from the To book drop down list, check the Create a copy option, and click the OK button. See screenshot:

3. Now all selected sheets are copied to a new workbook. Click File > Save to save the new workbook.

Quickly split a workbook to separate Excel / PDF / TXT / CSV files in Excel

Normally we can split a workbook to individual Excel files with the Move or Copy feature in Excel. But Kutools for Excel's Split Workbook utility can help you easily split a workbook and save each worksheet as a separate PDF/TEXT/CSV file or workbook in Excel.


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Split a workbook to separate Excel files with VBA code

The following VBA code can help you quickly split multiple worksheets of current workbook to separate Excel files, please do as follows:

1. Create a new folder for the workbook that you want to split, because the split Excel files will be stayed at the same folder as this master workbook.

2. Hold down the ALT + F11 keys in Excel, and it opens the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.

3. Click Insert > Module, and paste the following code in the Module Window.

VBA: Split a workbook into multiple workbooks and save in the same folder

Sub Splitbook()
'Updateby20140612
Dim xPath As String
xPath = Application.ActiveWorkbook.Path
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Application.DisplayAlerts = False
For Each xWs In ThisWorkbook.Sheets
    xWs.Copy
    Application.ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs Filename:=xPath & "\" & xWs.Name & ".xlsx"
    Application.ActiveWorkbook.Close False
Next
Application.DisplayAlerts = True
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

4. Press the F5 key to run this code. And the workbook is split to separate Excel files in the same folder with the original workbook. See screenshot:

Note: If one of the sheets has the same name with the workbook, this VBA cannot work.

Split a workbook to separate Excel / PDF / CSV / TXT files with Kutools for Excel easily

If you have Kutools for Excel installed, its Split Workbook tool can split multiple worksheets as separate Excel files conveniently and quickly with only a few clicks.

Kutools for Excel - Supercharge Excel with over 300 essential tools. Enjoy a full-featured 30-day FREE trial with no credit card required! Get It Now

1. After installing Kutools for Excel, click Kutools Plus > Split Workbook , see screenshot:

2. In the Split Workbook dialog box, do the following operations:
(1) All worksheet names are checked by default. If you don’t want to split some of the worksheets, you can uncheck them;
(2) Check the Save a type option;
(3) From the Save as type drop down, choose one file type you want to split and save.
(4) Then click Split button.

Note: If you want to avoid splitting the hidden or blank worksheets, you can check the Skip hidden worksheets or Skip blank worksheets box.

3. In the Browse For Folder dialog, please specify a destination folder to save the split separate files, and click the OK button.

Now the checked worksheets are saved as new separated workbooks. Each new workbook is named with the original worksheet name. See screenshot:

Kutools for Excel's Split Workbook tool makes it easy to split active workbook into individual Excel files (one file contains one worksheet), CSV files, TXT files, or PDF files as you need. You can set to skip all the blank and hidden worksheets. Have a Free Trial!


Demo: Split or save each worksheet of one workbook as separate excel / txt / csv / pdf files


Kutools for Excel: Over 300 handy tools at your fingertips! Start your 30-day free trial with no feature limitations today. Download Now!

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Comments (113)
Rated 2.5 out of 5 · 1 ratings
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Hello.
Both options work fine. But ..not satisfying my needs.
In each sheet i have 2 extra columns at and which contain vlookup formulas. And they all get exported to new files..
I cant have that.I also cant go and delete all formulas from all sheets then export , too much work.
Any solution to export but to ignore those columns with formulas?
Rated 2.5 out of 5
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
I tried this in Office 365 and it copies 8 sheets to separate files then gives me "run-time error '1004': Copy Method of Worksheet Class failed"
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Hi there, did you use the vba code or Kutools?
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
I was able to use this macro once and it was great but now it will not work and I only get one file labeled as "Sheet 1" and it is blank, can anyone help?
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Hello, how can we split the sheets tow by tow ==< what i mean is that i have an amount of sheets in one folder and I want tow split each tow successive sheets in one folder, i have tried to put changes on the basic code but i didn't succeed, I'm a beginner in this field if you can be held that is going to be a huge help
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
xWs.Copy
showing error in this area
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Hello, I just tried the split data function based on the first column (about 90 partners). Half of the worksheets are named correctly while the other just have number of the sheet eventhough there is name of the partner in the column. Any help, please?
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
i have a data of 5 worksheets. Every worksheet has a common column (Branch). Can i convert the data into different excel files based on respective branches
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Hi Sudarshan,
Kutools for Excel has an amazing feature – Split Data, which can quickly split data from a range or a sheet to multiple sheets based on values in the specified column. And these sheets are saved in a new workbook.

You can apply the Split Data feature to split each sheet based on the specified common column.
After splitting, you can apply the Combine Worksheets feature, also provided by Kutools for Excel, and combine all same name worksheets into one workbook.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
excel which i want to split is having 3 spread sheet my requirement is to split the excel as per the sheet 1 and remaning to sheet to be contant when file split
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Hi prateeksha,
In the fourth method on this webpage, the Split Workbook feature of Kutools for Excel is recommended, which will split every specified worksheet to individual PDF/CSV/TEXT/Workbooks.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Hey there,
I was wondering if we can use this macro to split the workbook into csv files
I've changed the VBA as below, replacing "xlsx" with "csv", but it doesn't work:
Application.ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs Filename:=xPath & "\" & xWs.Name & ".csv"
Thanks for your help!
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Hi Kevin,
It recommends trying the fourth method to solve your problem. Kutools for Excel can be freely trial for 30 days. And the Split Workbook feature of Kutools for Excel can solve the problem easily.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Very helpful code. Just had one question. How can I make these excel files read-only. I tried the below but it did not work.

Application.ActiveWorkbook.ChangeFileAccess Mode:=xlReadOnly
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