# Vertical Tabs for Excel

> Vertical Tabs is a Microsoft Excel add-in for Windows that lists every sheet of a workbook in a vertical, searchable pane docked on the left of the Excel window. It replaces scrolling through Excel's horizontal tab strip: press Ctrl+Shift+S from any cell, type part of a sheet name, pick with the arrow keys and press Enter. Free forever for personal and commercial use; search and the Ctrl+Shift+S shortcut are €19 once (VAT included), free for the first 7 days, no subscription.

Made and supported by one developer, sold by STRUCTURES.LV SIA (Latvia). Payments, invoices and VAT are handled by Paddle as merchant of record.

## What it does

- Lists every worksheet and chart sheet in a pane docked on the left, about 200 pixels wide, remembered between sessions.
- Search that ranks: the list narrows as you type; sheets whose names start with the typed text come first. Any word of the name matches.
- Keyboard-only navigation: Ctrl+Shift+S puts the caret in the search box from any cell; Up/Down walk the matches; Enter opens the sheet with the keyboard in it; Esc clears the search, a second Esc returns to the sheet. Every sheet remembers its active cell. The shortcut can be changed.
- Shows hidden and very hidden sheets (greyed, in italics), including ones Excel's own Unhide dialog does not list. Right-click to unhide.
- Shows each sheet's tab colour as a stripe; tab colours can be set from the pane using Excel's own palette.
- Right-click to rename, hide, make very hidden, or move sheets; drag sheets to reorder them.
- Follows changes made elsewhere in Excel within about a second.
- Each workbook window gets its own pane.
- Follows the Office theme, including dark.

## Requirements

- Windows desktop Excel 2007 through Microsoft 365, 32-bit or 64-bit.
- .NET Framework 4.8 (included in Windows 10 1903 and newer). No VSTO runtime.
- Not available for Excel for Mac or Excel on the web — deliberately: the web add-in platform cannot dock a pane on the left, register a global shortcut or reach very hidden sheets.

## Installing

- Download is a ~4 MB zip containing VerticalTabsSetup.exe. Extract, close Excel, run the installer.
- Installs per user into %LOCALAPPDATA%\VerticalTabs. No admin rights, no UAC prompt.
- SmartScreen may warn on a new release: More info → Run anyway. SHA-256 checksums are published at https://excelverticaltabs.com/SHA256SUMS.txt.

## Licence and privacy

- Free version, forever, personal and commercial use, any number of computers: the sheet list, click to go, hidden and very hidden sheets, tab colours, rename, recolour, hide, unhide and reorder. No time limit, no nag screens.
- Search and the Ctrl+Shift+S shortcut need a licence. They are free for the first 7 days on each computer; after that the add-in carries on as the free version until a key is entered.
- Licence: one-time purchase, €19 including VAT (shown in local currency where available). One person, up to two computers. Includes updates. 30-day no-questions refund.
- Businesses: enter a VAT number at checkout (Add VAT number on the payment step); once validated, VAT is removed and the invoice shows the company name, address and VAT number.
- Licence key is verified offline; the add-in makes no network connections and has no telemetry.
- The website counts visits with cookieless Cloudflare Web Analytics and uses Google Analytics 4 only after the visitor consents; the add-in itself sends nothing.

## Alternatives

- Kutools for Excel (a paid suite of 300+ tools) and XLNavigator (a paid navigation add-in) also include sheet navigation panes with search. Vertical Tabs does only this one job, adds a search shortcut, installs without admin rights and licenses offline.

## Links

- [Home page](https://excelverticaltabs.com/): features, live demo, price, FAQ
- [Download (free)](https://excelverticaltabs.com/VerticalTabsSetup.zip)
- [Terms and licence](https://excelverticaltabs.com/terms.html)
- [Privacy policy](https://excelverticaltabs.com/privacy.html)
- [Refund policy](https://excelverticaltabs.com/refund.html)
- Support: support@excelverticaltabs.com

## Guides

- [Too many sheets in Excel? 7 ways to navigate a large workbook](https://excelverticaltabs.com/guides/navigate-excel-workbook-with-many-sheets.html)
- [How to list all sheet names in Excel](https://excelverticaltabs.com/guides/list-all-sheet-names-in-excel.html): GET.WORKBOOK formula, Power Query, VBA index
- [How to find and unhide very hidden sheets in Excel](https://excelverticaltabs.com/guides/unhide-very-hidden-sheets-in-excel.html)
- [Excel keyboard shortcuts for working with sheets](https://excelverticaltabs.com/guides/excel-keyboard-shortcuts-for-sheets.html)