XLNavigator Excel Add-In for Windows Desktop
Benefits
Our goal with XLNavigator is to reduce the number of clicks, steps, and scrolling you make in Microsoft Excel.
The XLNavigator Excel Add-In saves you time and increases your productivity through effortless navigation with fewer clicks and less scrolling. XLNavigator also includes an ever-expanding list of features and functions that make working with data in Excel easier and less error-prone. Hence, you will be less frustrated and more effective using Microsoft Excel.
- ☑ Gain situational awareness and security by seeing all sheets, including hidden and very hidden sheets.
- ☑ Navigation features like Vertical Sheet Tabs save you time and effort when reviewing and editing the content of workbooks.
- ☑ Date functionality like the Calendar Date Picker helps prevent date entry errors and makes you more efficient in reviewing, planning, and working with dates.
- ☑ Excel data analysts and power users who use SQL Server and Excel together will benefit from our SQL features and be more efficient and effective in using Excel and SQL together.
Save time when navigating between many sheets
Minimize the need for scrolling or multiple clicks when navigating between many sheets. Tabs stacked vertically feel more natural, and significantly more tabs can be seen on the side before the vertical scroll bar is needed. Even with the vertical scroll bar, it is so much easier to scroll.
Added security by seeing and unhiding all hidden and very hidden sheets
Very hidden sheets are hard to detect and may contain malicious code. XLNavigator shows the position of all hidden and very hidden sheets and enables you to unhide all hidden sheets in a single click.
Easily discern between workbooks
Through workbook-specific customized vertical tabs, each workbook can have a unique appearance to differentiate between workbooks visually and quickly. Customize tab dimensions, font size and alignment, and colors.
Eliminate frustration when looking for specific sheets
Easy and quick to go to specific sheets. Find sheets fast with tabs quick search option. Use case-sensitive search option for exact matching.
Facilitates visual sheet and content planning
Seeing all sheets and hidden sheets in a table-of-contents style all at once makes it much easier and faster to flesh out the sheet content for your new workbook.
Serves as a sheet organizer tool
Similarly to content planning above, using the vertical tabs in conjunction with the horizontal tabs helps you speed up the process of moving sheets around and organizing your workbook content.
Use Vertical Tabs to jump horizontal tabs forward or backward
When you need to use the horizontal tabs to manipulate tab color, name, and visibility, you can select the bottom or topmost vertical tab of a subset of sheets you are working with, and the horizontal tabs will “jump” forward to backward and avoid the need for scrolling left or right.
Features
Navigation:
Vertical Sheet Tabs
Vertical Sheet Tabs are a more natural and efficient way to navigate between sheets than the standard horizontal sheet tabs in Microsoft Excel. Unfortunately, Microsoft Excel does not offer an option to view sheet tabs stacked vertically on the left or right side. However, the XLNavigator Excel Add-In extends the navigation functionality of Excel by seamlessly integrating a Vertical Tabs navigation pane into Excel.
Quick Search Tabs
For large workbooks, it can be frustrating to quickly locate a specific sheet, especially if several sheets have very similar names. Use the quick search filter option to find all sheet name matches as you type.

Check the case-sensitive option for distinguishing between upper and lower case letters in your search.
Show Hidden and Very Hidden Sheet Tabs
Unhide all Hidden and Very Hidden sheets in one single click. Click here to learn what the difference is between Hidden and Very Hidden. Optionally, automatically unhide Hidden sheets when selecting a “[Hidden] …“ tab on the Vertical Tabs pane.

Situational awareness in Excel is enhanced by the Vertical Tabs’ ability to display the position of any hidden and very hidden sheets.

Very hidden sheets are not listed in Excel’s hide/unhide popup list. The VBA backend code editor is required to identify any very hidden sheets. This can also present a security risk if you receive Excel files from other parties that may contain very hidden sheets.
Toggle Display of Horizontal Tabs On or Off for Workbooks
Some may prefer not to see the horizontal tabs when using the vertical tabs for navigating Excel. However, horizontal tabs may also be needed for some tasks to manipulate tab color, name, position, visibility, etc.

Use the XLNavigator ribbon menu to hide or show the workbook horizontal tabs as needed.
Display Vertical Tabs on Either Left or Right Side or Collapse Until Needed
Having the vertical tabs on the right side may be more convenient for some tasks.

The Vertical Tabs pane can be dragged and docked to either the left or right side at any time. The Vertical Tabs pane can also be collapsed or expanded as needed.
Auto-Adjust Tab Width
The default auto-adjust size option automatically adjusts the width and height of the vertical tabs to fit the length of the longest tab name.

The auto-adjust feature saves screen real estate. However, this option can be deactivated, giving you precise control to edit and fine-tune all tab dimensions as desired.
Adjust Width Precisely with the Task Pane Slider Control
For precise visual adjustment of the vertical tabs, use the mouse cursor to adjust the task pane panel’s width using the task pane slider control.

Once the width is adjusted using the slider control, the auto size adjustment is disabled. The vertical tabs will retain static width until auto size adjustment is enabled again under “Options.”
Mirror and Sync Horizontal Tab Color

By default, the vertical tabs’ color is synchronized with the horizontal tabs’ color. Vertical tabs’ color can also be customized under “Options.”
Customize Tabs Appearance
Under “Options” on the XLNavigator ribbon menu, all aspects of vertical tabs’ appearance can be customized, including custom colors, width, height, text size, and text alignment.
Customize Text and Tab Colors for both Selected and Unselected tabs

Create a custom color scheme for vertical tabs and text. Different colors can be used to distinguish the selected active tab from the others to make it easy to identify which tab is currently selected. You can also select from three pre-defined color schemes: Dark, Excel Green, and Dodger Blue.
Change Tab Width, Height, and Font Size

Drag the slider controls to adjust tab text size, width, and height. Use the up and down arrow keys for small incremental adjustments to fine-tune your vertical tabs’ appearance.
Change Text Alignment and Wrap/Truncate Text
Wrap text allows the text to continue on a new line if the tab height is set large enough and the text cannot be completely displayed on the current tab width. Uncheck this option to truncate the text if it does not completely fit on the current tab.

Large high-contrast color tabs can greatly increase legibility and visibility during presentations. Compact small tabs, on the other hand, can make it possible to view 100 or more vertical tabs without scrolling. Best of all, you can save these custom vertical tab settings in each workbook for next time.
Change and Save Vertical Tab Settings for specific Workbook, XLNavigator Default, or for each open Excel file without saving

XLNavigator gives you much flexibility on when and how to apply vertical tab custom settings. If not opting to save and override current XLNavigator default settings and/or specific workbook settings, any customizations only apply to the open Excel file until it is closed. Multiple open Excel files can all be customized individually with or without saving those vertical tab settings in the workbook.
Dates:
Calendar Date Picker
The calendar date picker is extremely handy in Excel when working with dates, especially when planning out new schedules, etc.
Set Date in Selected Cell or Multiple Cells from Calendar
Select a cell or multiple cells and then click on any day on the calendar to set the date value in the cells to match the selected date. Check the option to automatically adjust the width of the column in Excel to display the new date value.
Display Selected Cell Date Value visually on the Calendar
Select any cell in Excel with a date value, and the calendar will visually display the corresponding date. This is exceptionally handy to quickly tell what day of the week the cell date represents. Uncheck this option at any time when not needed.

Display Week Numbers
The calendar also displays the week number of each week in the year, 52 complete weeks in a year.
Resizable Calendar
The calendar can be resized using the mouse cursor to move the task pane slider control left or right to adjust width.

Display Up to 12 Months Without Scrolling
When the calendar is made wide enough with the slider control up, 12 months can be displayed simultaneously on the calendar for annual view and date planning.
Display Calendar on Either Left or Right Side or Collapse Until Needed

Drag and dock the calendar pane on either the left or right side according to your preferences.
SQL
XLNavigator SQL Server features are designed with developers, analysts, and power users in mind who work with Excel and SQL Server. Especially for those ad-hoc situations where one needs to get data from Excel into SQL Server or vice versa for further analysis and review. The SQL Server Import and Export Wizard is quite capable; however, it requires several steps and preparation to import data into SQL Server from Excel. Using the SQL Server native tools for importing or exporting data from or to Excel often also encounters errors, and that is frustrating when one quickly wants to move the data and get on with it! XLNavigator really shines in this scenario and makes it a breeze to quickly import a range or selection of cells with data into SQL Server or export data into Excel.
Import Selected Cells as new SQL Server Table
XLNavigator lets you select any block of cells and import it into SQL Server as a new table fast. Experience high performance: the import process loads thousands of rows within seconds.


Specify Schema
When importing a range of cells into SQL Server, the schema for the table can be specified, or let it default to “dbo”.
Detect Data Types and String Length
XLNavigator can detect some common data types, including dates and currency, or all data can be imported as varchar string data only. Use the varchar length options to set minimum varchar length and increment varchar length in specific increment sizes for a clean and consistent table design. This option also ensures that the SQL table field can be set larger than the longest string found in the imported column to accommodate future imports where longer string lengths may be expected.
Add Identity Column
An auto-incrementing ID identity column can be added to the imported table.
Option to Create Column Headers from First Row
When importing a selection of cells from Excel into SQL Server, you may select the cells with the first row in the selection representing the column headers. However, perhaps you want to get the selection into SQL Server, and there are no column names, really. In this case, uncheck the “First Row Contains Headers” option; the table column names will match the Excel column names from where the data originated.
Append Selected Cells to Existing SQL Server Table
If the selected range of cells corresponds in name and detected data type with an existing table in SQL Server, the selection can be appended or inserted into the specified table.
Export SQL Server Table or View To Excel
Select any table or view and export it into Excel, where the first selected cell of the active sheet will be the first row and column of the exported data range.

Specify Schema
Select any table or view from the selected schema or leave the default as “dbo.”
Export as Excel Table or Range
Option to Include or Exclude Headers
Clear or Truncate Selected SQL Server Table(s)
For added convenience, XLNavigator allows you to select one or more tables from a specific schema and truncate or clear all of them with one button click.

Delete or Drop Selected SQL Server Table(s)
Similarly, one or more tables from a specific schema can also be dropped or deleted with one button click.
Videos
XLNavigator quick intro on YouTube
Technical Requirements
XLNavigator is a COM add-in for Windows Desktop Excel, compatible with Windows 7 to 11, Excel 2007 to Office 365, and supports both 32-bit and 64-bit environments.
FAQ
HOW DO I INSTALL THE XLNAVIGATOR ADD-IN?
First, make sure you close all open Microsoft Office applications on your Windows computer. Click on the Download button above and download the installer. Once downloaded, open the installer file to install the XLNavigator add-in for Excel. Follow the installation steps, and after the installation process is complete, you should see the Excel vertical tabs and the date picker calendar appear in MS Excel.
HOW DO I CHANGE XLNAVIGATOR TO THE STANDARD OR PROFESSIONAL VERSION?
First, click on the Purchase button and complete the checkout process. After you have completed the payment steps, you will receive an email from LicenceSpring containing your XLNavigator license key. Next, open Excel, click on the KuduTek.com ribbon tab, and click About. From there, you will see the upgrade button. Once you click the upgrade button, you will see a prompt to paste in a valid license key. Once you click OK, your XLNavigator add-in should show the version changed to “Standard” or “Professional”.
DOES XLNAVIGATOR WORK WITH MAC?
No. At this time, XLNavigator is compatible with Windows 7 and later.
DOES XLNAVIGATOR WORK WITH THE WEB VERSION OF EXCEL?
No, not yet. However, we are working on it. Currently, XLNavigator is only compatible with the Windows desktop version of MS Excel.