How to Send a Single Excel Worksheet as Email Attachment

We often create and work on multiple Excel worksheets. These could be separate sheets in the same workbook (for example different worksheets for different years, products, departments, etc.).

Sometimes, you may need to send a part of the worksheet or a single excel worksheet from the workbook to your colleague or boss. While there can be other ways of doing this, in this tutorial, I’ll show you the fastest and the easiest way to email a single Excel worksheet or a part of the worksheet.

But there is some pre-work.

You need to add an icon to the Excel Quick Access Toolbar. This will enable the functionality to send a single Excel worksheet or a part of the worksheet as the Email attachment.

Here is how to do it:

  • Right click on any of the ribbon tabs and select Customize Quick Access Toolbar.How to Send Single Excel Worksheet as Email Attachment - Customize QAT
  • In the Excel Options dialogue box, select All Command in the ‘Choose Command from’ drop down.How to Send Single Excel Worksheet as Email Attachment - All Commands
  • Scroll Down and select Send to Mail Recipient option.How to Send Single Excel Worksheet as Email Attachment - Send to Mail Recipients
  • Click on the Add button. This will add the Send to Mail Recipient option on the right pane.How to Send Single Excel Worksheet as Email Attachment - Add
  • Click Ok.How to Send Single Excel Worksheet as Email Attachment - Ok

This will add the Send to Mail Recipient icon in the Quick Access Toolbar.How to Send Single Excel Worksheet as Email Attachment - Added to QAT

Here are the things you can do using this option:

  • Send a part of the worksheet in the Email body.
  • Send a single Excel worksheet as the Email attachment.
  • Send the entire workbook as the email attachment.

Note: I have tested this in Outlook Only. I believe it should work with your default email client as well.

Also read: How to Embed a PDF In Excel

Send a Part of the Worksheet as Email Body

You can send a part of the worksheet (a range of cells) as the Email body using the Send to Mail Recipient option that we added to the Quick Access Toolbar.

Here is how to do this:

  • Activate the worksheet from which you want to email a range of cells.
  • Click on the Send of Mail Recipient icon from the Quick Access Toolbar.How to Send Single Excel Worksheet as Email Attachment - Added to QAT
  • In the E-mail prompt that opens, select ‘Send the current sheet as the message body’ and click OK.
    • It will make the current worksheet as the body of an outbound email. It will automatically open the default email client on your system and have the worksheet as a part of the Email body.How to Send Single Excel Worksheet as Email Attachment - Send as Message Body
  • If you select a range of cells, it will only send the selection as a part of the email body. Else, it will send the entire worksheet.How to Send Single Excel Worksheet as Email Attachment - Send Selection
  • Click on Send.

Note that when you use the above method to send a part of the worksheet in the email body, it does not retain any functionality of an Excel Worksheet. This could be helpful if you want to quickly send a part of a bigger data set, instead of sending the entire worksheet.

Send a Single Excel Worksheet as Email Attachment

You may want to send a single Excel worksheet (from many worksheets in the workbook) as the email attachment. To do this, you need to create a new workbook with that single sheet, and then send it using the Send to Email Recipient.

Here are the steps:

  • Right-click on the sheet that you want to send and select Move or Copy.How to Send Single Excel Worksheet as Email Attachment - Move Copy
  • In the Move or Copy dialogue box, select (new book) under the To book drop down. Also, check the Create a copy option at the bottom left.How to Send Single Excel Worksheet as Email Attachment - create Copy
  • Click OK. This will create a new workbook that will have the copied worksheet only.
  • With the newly created workbook activated, click on Send to Mail Recipient icon from the Quick Access Toolbar.How to Send Single Excel Worksheet as Email Attachment - Added to QAT
  • In the Email dialogue box, select the option ‘Send the entire workbook as an attachment’.How to Send Single Excel Worksheet as Email Attachment - Send emtiure workbook
  • Click OK. This will open an outbound email with the workbook attached. Since this is the new workbook that we created, and only has one sheet (that we moved), you are sending a single worksheet only.How to Send Single Excel Worksheet as Email Attachment - Email Attachment
  • Click on Send.

Send the Entire Workbook as Email Attachment

You can easily send the entire workbook by attaching it as a part of the email.

Here are the steps to do this:

  • Click on Send to Mail Recipient from the Quick Access Toolbar.How to Send Single Excel Worksheet as Email Attachment - Added to QAT
  • In the Email dialogue box, select the option ‘Send the entire workbook as an attachment’.How to Send Single Excel Worksheet as Email Attachment - Send emtiure workbook
  • Click OK. This will open an outbound email with the workbook attached to it.How to Send Excel Workbook as Email Attachment - Send workbook
  • Click on Send.

While you can do all the above-mentioned things without using the Send to Mail recipient option, it does speed up the process and makes it more efficient.

You may also like the following Excel tutorials:

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Picture of Sumit Bansal
Hello there! I'm Sumit Bansal, founder of trumpexcel.com and an Excel MVP. I started this website in 2013 with a simple goal: to share my love for Excel through easy to follow tips, tutorials and videos. I'm here to help you get the best out of MS Excel to save time and boost your productivity.

28 thoughts on “How to Send a Single Excel Worksheet as Email Attachment”

  1. I’ve tried testing this several ways, using the command added to my QAT, and also using the File > Share option. Either way brings up an Outlook e-mail and I’ve attached the file either as a pdf or xls file and send it to another one of my e-mail accounts. However, it never appears to go through? Any suggestions on why this might be happening or if there is any other set up I need to do in advance? I have checked my junk/spam folders and they are not in there. Thanks for your help and all your great tips!

    Reply
  2. We just updated our computers to Window 10. Attaching an email doesn’t work if sending from the excel spreadsheet. I’ve tried it several ways, and still it doesn’t appear to work. Any further suggestions?

    Reply
  3. It’s amazing, now it’s very easy for me send files to my bosses, thanks alot and keep up with it.

    Reply
  4. Hi Sumit!

    Any solution for Gmail yet? Our company has converted to Gmail and the loss of this function is devastating to productivity.

    If you have any tips for Gmail users, please advise.

    Reply
  5. I was very excited to fine your clearly written instructions for attaching a single worksheet from a workbook to an email. Unfortunately, as I was going through the tutorial, I came to a screeching halt when I didn’t have any of the Send commands listed under the ‘All Commands’ Quick Access Toolbar menu. What am I doing wrong?

    Reply
    • Hello Sunit.. I haven’t tried it with Gmail or other mails, as Outlook is my system’s default client.. I will try it out with other email services and update this post

      Reply
  6. Very nice! I never thought of doing this.
    Question: does this need to be tied to Outlook or can this be used with gmail or yahoo mail?

    Reply

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