Share selected Excel sheets as a separate workbook

A separate attachment or ongoing collaboration?

For ongoing work on a master workbook, use your usual sharing permissions. Microsoft’s section links open the workbook at a sheet or highlight a range, table or chart. Opening in desktop Excel or downloading removes the highlight. A section link does not create a separate selected-sheet file; choose access settings for the collaboration you intend.

Microsoft: share a section of a workbook, checked 20 October 2026.

For an attachment that stands apart from the master, create another workbook. First check dependencies: an estimate may need its input sheet to remain editable. If that input sheet contains information the recipient must not receive, do not include it merely to make a formula work. Prepare a different report in your spreadsheet editor.

Copy to a new workbook in desktop Excel

Native copying is a useful option, especially for workbooks outside Cloakfold’s limited support.

1. Use Move or Copy for the intended sheet. On Mac, Microsoft places it under Edit → Sheet.
2. Choose new book as the destination and enable Create a copy, then confirm. The destination matters: copying within the source is still the master workbook.
3. Copy any further intended sheets into that destination workbook. Save it and review references and contents before attaching it.

Based on Microsoft’s worksheet-copy guidance, checked 20 October 2026. Menus vary; see the linked guidance for Excel for the web. These are documented instructions, not our installed Excel tests.

Native copying is not a sanitation guarantee. Check for references back to the source and for unwanted data, comments and properties carried into the copy. Calculate and inspect the final saved file.

LOCAL SELECTED-SHEET COPY

Use Cloakfold for a supported, self-contained workbook

Need the complete workbook with saved results and notes kept? Remove Excel file properties is a separate supported job. Hidden and unused content, cell notes and their authors stay. Review the copy.

Cloakfold is free, requires no account and processes one macro-free .xlsx file up to 20 MB on your device, without uploading it. The tool requires JavaScript; this guide does not.

Support is limited. Unsupported features anywhere in the workbook, including excluded sheets, can prevent the entire copy. Charts, tables, pivots, external data and broader Excel formats may refuse. Hidden sheets cannot be selected; hidden rows or columns, filters and objects can also prevent copying. This is not a way to export only currently visible cells.

1. Open Copy selected Excel sheets and choose your XLSX. Keep the original separately.
2. After analysis, deliberately check the visible whole sheets you want. All start unchecked. Cloakfold never adds dependent sheets automatically. A formula needing an excluded sheet prevents a copy; it is never silently replaced with its saved value.
3. Review the Included and Not included lists. Every cell, formula, sheet title and supported text in number formats on chosen sheets remains, including off-screen or inconspicuous content. Inspect those sheets in your editor if unsure what they contain.
4. Confirm that you want every cell on the included sheets, then create the copy. Other sheets, comments, document properties and saved formula results are omitted. Print layout and views are reset. Refusal leaves your source unchanged and provides no partial copy.
5. Read the report, then download cloakfold-selected-sheets.xlsx. Included/excluded counts describe the copy, not whether its retained contents are suitable to share.

Cloakfold does not calculate formulas. Initial displays or previews may show blanks or zeros because saved results are omitted. Open the download in a spreadsheet reader, explicitly calculate and check the numbers before sharing. It is not a calculated-values snapshot or a freshness guarantee.

Existing output has been opened, edited, calculated, saved and reopened in LibreOffice Calc 26.2.6.3. This does not establish Microsoft Excel fidelity or arbitrary format support. Rendering depends on reader and fonts; dates near February 1900 can differ between readers. Read the supported scope and limits.