# Cannot Rename the Tab on a worksheet



## sdtex (Nov 14, 2001)

This seems so simple, I'm almost embarrassed to ask, but my daughter dowloaded an excel spreadsheet from her mail and began to work on it. She then went to rename the worksheet tabs and typed in simply "Amy". The tab read, though .xls] Amy. Of course she got an error message saying she entered an invalid name and cannot use the characters : / { , etc. She deleted all the text and typed in just Amy and she continually gets the same error message, even though she doesn't have any invalid characters in the name anymore (or so it appears). 

She had previously changed a worksheet tab from "Sheet 1" to Kurt, but this also read .xls] Kurt and still read that way. She never typed .xls] in any of the names, yet ot showed up that way. We cannot do anything now becasue we can't get out of the "rename" function without getting the error message.

Please help...........Thanks

Microsoft Excel 2002


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## etaf (Oct 2, 2003)

> dowloaded an excel spreadsheet from her mail and began to work on it.


has she copied this to mydocuments and opened - or did she open from the email directly

if she opens a new excel spreadsheet - what happens if she renames the tabs

it maybe ESC Key will work


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## sdtex (Nov 14, 2001)

Opened straight from the e-mail and began working. Never saved it. Has an hour of work on it and is afraid of losing her work if we do something like "cont>alt>delete".

Can't open a new spreadsheet, can't escape, can't rename tabs. Get the error message every time.


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## Rollin_Again (Sep 4, 2003)

Right click the sheet name and select "Move or Copy" and then check the box to create a copy. Try to copy the sheet to a brand new workbook. If this doesn't work and you're stuck in the rename function you should search the hard drive for the temp file that has been created and try to copy it.

Regards,
Rollin


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## etaf (Oct 2, 2003)

this is most likely to have been saved in temporary internet files 
These are located under you user name in documents and settings (in XP) or (User in vista)

did esc allow you to get out of the rename loop


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