Let's say you have sales reports for two months and you want to view both of them simultaneously to understand which products performed better this month and which did better last month. You can use this method to visually compare two workbooks or two sheets in the same workbook. I am talking about View Side by Side mode that lets you arrange two Excel windows side by side. If you have relatively small workbooks and a sharp eye for detail, this quick and easy way to compare Excel files might work well for you.

How to compare two Excel files by viewing them side by side

Online services to compare two Excel sheets.

Specialized tools to compare files in Excel.

Compare and merge copies of a shared workbook.

Highlight differences between 2 sheets with conditional formatting.

Compare two Excel sheets for differences using formulas.

Compare two Excel files by viewing them side-by-side.

So, let's have a closer look at various methods to compare two Excel sheets or entire workbooks and identify differences between them.

In addition, workbook comparison can help you spot potential problems like broken links, duplicate records, inconsistent formulas or wrong formatting. When you have two similar Excel workbooks, or better say two versions of the same workbook, what's the first thing you usually want to do with them? Right, compare those files for differences, and then probably merge them into a single file. See how to open two Excel windows side by side, how to use Excel formulas to create a difference report, highlight differences with conditional formatting, and more. In this tutorial, you will learn a variety of methods to compare Excel files and identify differences between them.

Excel for mac new query