The Consolidation Assistant is designed to help you consolidate data from multiple workbooks or from multiple worksheets.

Workbook consolidation can be done several ways:

Extract a range from selected worksheets (either a named range or a selected range on a specific worksheet)

Combining worksheets from a list of workbooks

Selecting a set of workbooks and specifying a range name that identifies the data range to be extracted.

If you need to extract the same range from many workbooks, the Consolidation Assistant allows you to extract the same range from all selected workbooks and put the output on a worksheet. You can specify either a range name or select a range on a specific sheet for extraction. The extraction can be transposed on the output worksheet, blank rows put between extractions, and the source workbook listed beside the extraction. If you do not want the data extracted to just one worksheet, then the data can be extracted to individual worksheets.

When consolidating workbooks, you can convert the sheets to values or copying the entire sheet. The first approach is the one to use if you have range names used in the formulas, and these range names can have different values. Excel by design will use the first range name that is copied into the consolidation workbook. This range name may not be what you want used for every sheet. And, sometimes it creates local names, so that you end up with the global name used by some sheets, and the local names on other sheets. If you do not use range names in the formulas, then copying the entire sheet allows you to retain formulas that may be of use to you.

Combining worksheets from a list of workbooks, is a two step operation. First you run the first option on the above menu and select the files containing the worksheets to be consolidated. This creates a list of workbooks and worksheets. For those sheets you wish to consolidate, type the name to use in the consolidated file to the right of the existing name. The set of names you specify must each be unique. Once you have done this, select the range containing the new sheet names and run option two on the above menu. Blank cells in the selection will be ignored. When the consolidation is finished, you will end up with a workbook containing each of the sheets that you specified.

The Consolidation Assistant has several other features that allow you to better view your data. One freezes panes on all selected sheets. Another sets the same cell on all selected sheets to the upper left corner. And at the same time sets the zoom to the same setting on all the worksheets.

If you are consolidation CSV or text files, options in the Consolidation Assistant allow you to:

Consolidate by selecting files in a file open dialog, or

Create a list of files in a directory and its sub directory and then select the ones you want to consolidate.

CSV and text file consolidation allow you to

Consolidate each file to its own worksheet

Consolidate all files to one worksheet

Consolidate all files to one worksheet and list the source file on each row