Do you want to color-coordinate your sheet tabs? This post is going to show you all the ways you can color sheet tabs in Google Sheets.

Naming sheets in a way that gives you or other users an idea of the information it contains is a tip that can improve your workbook organization in so many ways. But you can also add colors to sheets to further group and order your sheet tabs.

Certain colors can be used to pass specific types of information, and using them as a sheet identifier can be very handy.

Adding colors to a sheet is very straightforward, and this post will show you how to do it. Get your copy of the example workbook used in this post and follow along!

Color a Sheet Tab from the Sheet Tab

This spreadsheet contains expense and income data. Since expenses represent money leaving the business account you might give the expense sheet a red color and the income sheet a green color.

Follow these steps to add color to your sheet,

1. Left click on the dropdown arrow next to the sheet name or right-click anywhere on the sheet name
2. Select Change color from the options.
3. Select the red color from the color palette.

The applied color will appear below the sheet name.

Unfortunately, the color only appears as a line below the sheet and does not fill the entire tab.

Colour Multiple Sheet Tabs at the Same Time

Say you have two sheets that contain the same information but for different periods, it might be appropriate to give the sheets the same color.

You can easily do this from the sheet tab by following these steps.

1. Select the sheets you want to apply the same color. Hold down the Ctrl key and click on the sheet names.

This will select both sheets and they should both become a white color to indicate they are selected.

💡 Tip: Press and hold the Ctrl key to select and group together any number of sheets.

2. Right-click on any of the sheet names.
3. Select Change color from the options.
4. Select your desired color from the color pallet.

Now, both sheets have the same color!

Remove Color from a Sheet Tab

If you want to change or remove a sheet color, it’s also very easy.

Follow these steps to remove a color from a sheet tab.

1. Right-click on the sheet.
2. Select the Change color option.
3. Click on the Reset button in the color pallet options menu.

This will reset the sheet color and it will go back to the default color. You can then choose another color to update the current color option.

Colour a Sheet Tab using the Sheets Manager Add-on

One benefit of using an add-on is that you can get related features in one place. The Sheets Manager add-on is a collection of features that helps you manage your sheets.

To download the add-on, go to the Extensions menu ribbon, select Add-ons and click on Get add-ons. This takes you to the Google workspace market.

In the workspace market, search for Sheets Manager by Ablebits.

Click on the Install button. You will be prompted to grant permission.

After installing, exit the workspace market.

Go back to the Extensions menu ribbon. Select the Sheets Manager add-on in the dropdown. Click Start to open the add on.

When the Sheets Manager tile opens on the right side of the spreadsheet, you will find a list of all the visible sheets in the file.

Follow these steps to add color.

1. Select the sheet you want to add color to. Hold down the Ctrl key while you click on each sheet to select multiple sheets at once.

Alternatively, you can use the Selection mode feature. When you click on the icon, you can then easily select each sheet by applying a checkmark.

2. After selecting the sheet, click on the change color icon to reveal the color palette.

Select the color you want to apply to the sheets and click on the Selection mode icon to remove the checkmarks.

Your selected sheets should now have the chosen color applied.

Color a Sheet Tab with an Apps Script

Apps scripts will allow you to automate just about anything in your Google Sheets workbooks. This includes any tasks you have with the sheet tabs of your file.

This app’s script approach will allow you to add color to sheets that start with or contain a particular word.

This way you can change the color of a group of sheets without all the manual effort!

To open the apps script editor, go to the Extensions menu and click on the Apps Script option.

function colorSheet() {
  var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActive();
  var sheets = ss.getSheets();

  var ui = SpreadsheetApp.getUi();
  var firstPrompt = ui.prompt("Enter Sheet Name", "Sheet Name", ui.ButtonSet.OK_CANCEL)
    
  if(firstPrompt.getSelectedButton() == ui.Button.OK) {
      var sheetName = firstPrompt.getResponseText();
  }

  var secondPrompt = ui.prompt("Set Sheet Color", "Sheet Color", ui.ButtonSet.OK_CANCEL)

  if(secondPrompt.getSelectedButton() == ui.Button.OK) {
      var tabColor = secondPrompt.getResponseText();
  }
 

  for(i = 0; i < sheets.length; i++) {
    name = sheets[i].getSheetName();
    tabName = ss.getSheetByName(name)
    if(name.includes(sheetName)) {
     tabName.setTabColor(tabColor)
    }
  }

}

function onOpen(e) {
  SpreadsheetApp.getUi()
      .createMenu("Sheet")
      .addItem('Color Sheets', 'colorSheet')
      .addToUi();
}

Copy and paste this script inside the editor window and click on Save. After granting permissions, go and refresh your spreadsheet.

Upon refreshing the spreadsheet, you will find a new menu called Sheet Tab.

The Color Sheets in this menu option allows you to specify in a pop-up menu which sheets you want to add color to and what colors you want to use.

The first pop-up box asks for the sheet name and the second pop-up asks for the type of color to use. This color is then applied to every sheet with the name entered in the first pop-up.

Conclusions

Google Sheets has lots of features that make it easy for you to surf through data with little to no stress.

As such you have to take advantage of every option available to optimize and organize your work.

While coloring your sheets might not look all that significant, it can go a long way to improving your workbook. With sheet tab colors, you can easily tell at a glance which sheets are related.

This becomes even more effective when you have established colors for specific types of data.

Do you color your sheet tabs to help organize your files? Do you think you find this useful? Let me know in the comments!