Compare XLS Worksheets: Unveiling Differences and Streamlining Data Analysis in Excel

In today’s data-driven world, working with spreadsheets is a daily routine for many professionals. Microsoft Excel, a powerhouse in data management, often leads to scenarios where you’re handling multiple versions of similar worksheets. Whether you’re tracking sales figures, managing project data, or collaborating on financial reports, the need to Compare Xls Worksheets and pinpoint discrepancies becomes crucial.

Imagine you have two Excel files, perhaps monthly reports or iterations of a project plan. Your immediate question is likely: “What has changed?”. Comparing these worksheets efficiently is not just about identifying differences; it’s about ensuring data accuracy, streamlining collaboration, and saving valuable time. From spotting formula inconsistencies to highlighting data entry errors, effective worksheet comparison is an indispensable skill for any Excel user.

This comprehensive guide dives deep into various methods to compare XLS worksheets and entire Excel workbooks, empowering you to identify differences with precision. We will explore built-in Excel functionalities, from simple side-by-side viewing to leveraging formulas and conditional formatting. Furthermore, we’ll venture into advanced third-party tools designed to offer robust comparison and merging capabilities, ensuring you have a complete toolkit for any comparison task.

Side-by-Side Viewing: A Visual Approach to Compare Excel Worksheets

For a quick, visual comparison, especially with smaller datasets, Excel’s “View Side by Side” mode offers a straightforward solution. This feature allows you to arrange two Excel windows adjacent to each other, facilitating a direct visual scan for differences. This method is particularly useful when comparing two separate workbooks or different worksheets within the same workbook.

Comparing Two Excel Workbooks Side-by-Side

Let’s consider a practical example: you’re analyzing sales data from two different quarters, each in a separate Excel workbook. To view these reports simultaneously for a direct comparison:

Open both Excel workbooks that you wish to compare.
Navigate to the View tab on the Excel ribbon.
In the Window group, click the View Side by Side button.

Excel will automatically arrange the two workbooks side by side, typically in a horizontal layout by default.

To adjust the arrangement to a vertical view, which can be preferable for wider worksheets, click the Arrange All button within the Window group on the View tab and select Vertical.

With both workbooks displayed side-by-side, you can visually scan for differences in data. For a synchronized scrolling experience, ensuring row-by-row comparison, activate the Synchronous Scrolling feature. This option, usually enabled automatically when you use “View Side by Side”, is located directly below the “View Side by Side” button in the Window group of the View tab.

For a more detailed guide on this feature, refer to resources specifically dedicated to viewing Excel workbooks side by side.

Managing Multiple Excel Windows for Comparison

When dealing with more than two Excel files, the “View Side by Side” feature intelligently adapts. After opening all the workbooks you intend to compare and clicking “View Side by Side”, Excel presents a Compare Side by Side dialog box. This allows you to select which files should be displayed alongside the currently active workbook.

Alternatively, for viewing all open Excel workbooks simultaneously, the Arrange All button offers various layout options: tiled, horizontal, vertical, or cascade. Choose the arrangement that best suits your comparison needs.

Comparing Worksheets Within the Same Workbook

Often, the worksheets you need to compare reside within the same Excel workbook. To view these side-by-side, follow these steps:

Open your Excel workbook and navigate to the View tab.
In the Window group, click the New Window button. This opens a new window displaying the same workbook.
Activate View Side by Side mode by clicking the respective button on the ribbon.
In each window, select the specific worksheet you want to compare. For instance, choose ‘Sheet1’ in the first window and ‘Sheet2’ in the second.

This method effectively places two worksheets from the same workbook in a side-by-side view for easy comparison.

Formula-Based Worksheet Comparison: Generating a Difference Report

For a more analytical approach to compare XLS worksheets, Excel formulas provide a method to automatically generate a difference report. This technique is particularly useful for identifying cells with differing values between two worksheets. The outcome is a new worksheet detailing the discrepancies.

To implement this formula-based comparison:

Insert a new, blank worksheet in your workbook. This sheet will serve as your difference report.
In cell A1 of the new sheet, enter the following formula:
=IF(Sheet1!A1 <> Sheet2!A1, "Sheet1:"&Sheet1!A1&" vs Sheet2:"&Sheet2!A1, "")
- Note: Replace “Sheet1” and “Sheet2” with the actual names of the worksheets you are comparing.
Copy this formula down and across the new worksheet to cover the range of data you need to compare. You can efficiently do this by dragging the fill handle (the small square at the bottom-right of the selected cell).

The formula works by comparing corresponding cells in ‘Sheet1’ and ‘Sheet2’. If the values in cell A1 of both sheets are different, the formula will output a text string indicating the values from each sheet. If the values are identical, the cell will remain blank.

The resulting worksheet will highlight cells where differences exist, showing the values from both original worksheets. It’s important to note that while this method effectively identifies value differences, it may present dates as serial numbers in the difference report, which can be less user-friendly for date comparisons. This is because Excel stores dates internally as serial numbers.

Conditional Formatting: Visually Highlighting Differences in Worksheets

Conditional formatting offers a visually striking way to compare XLS worksheets by automatically highlighting cells that contain different values. This method allows you to instantly see discrepancies within a worksheet.

Here’s how to apply conditional formatting for worksheet comparison:

Select the data range in the worksheet where you want to highlight differences. Start by selecting the top-left cell of your data range (usually A1), and then press Ctrl + Shift + End to extend the selection to the last used cell in your worksheet.
Navigate to the Home tab on the Excel ribbon.
In the Styles group, click Conditional Formatting, then select New Rule.
In the “New Formatting Rule” dialog box, choose “Use a formula to determine which cells to format”.
Enter the following formula in the “Format values where this formula is true” box:
=A1<>Sheet2!A1
- Remember to replace “Sheet2” with the name of the other worksheet you are comparing against.
Click the Format… button to choose the formatting style for the cells with differences (e.g., fill color, font style).
Click OK in both the “Format Cells” and “New Formatting Rule” dialog boxes.

This rule compares each cell in your selected range of the active sheet with the corresponding cell in ‘Sheet2’. If a difference is found, the cell in the active sheet will be formatted according to the style you selected.

For a more detailed guide on conditional formatting, resources like tutorials on Excel conditional formatting based on another cell value can be very helpful.

While formulas and conditional formatting are useful for value-based comparisons, they have limitations:

Limited to Values: They primarily compare cell values and do not account for differences in formulas or cell formatting.
Row/Column Sensitivity: Adding or deleting rows or columns in one worksheet can skew the comparison, as subsequent rows and columns will be incorrectly flagged as different.
Worksheet Structure Ignored: These methods operate at the worksheet level and do not detect structural differences at the workbook level, such as added or removed worksheets.

Compare and Merge Shared Workbooks: Collaborating on Excel Files

When collaboration is key and multiple users are working on the same Excel workbook, the Compare and Merge Workbooks feature becomes invaluable. This Excel functionality is specifically designed for merging changes made in different copies of a shared workbook, allowing you to consolidate contributions from various users.

To effectively use this feature, ensure the following preparatory steps are taken:

Share the Excel Workbook: Before distributing the workbook for collaborative editing, it must be shared. To do this, click the Share Workbook button located in the Changes group under the Review tab. In the “Share Workbook” dialog, check the box labeled “Allow changes by more than one user at the same time…” and click OK. Excel may prompt you to save the workbook to enable sharing. Enabling Track Changes automatically shares the workbook as well.
User Copies and Unique File Names: Each user editing the shared workbook must save their version as a copy (.xls or .xlsx file) with a distinct file name. This ensures that each set of changes is tracked separately.

Once these preparations are complete, you are ready to merge the different copies back into a primary version.

Enabling the “Compare and Merge Workbooks” Feature

Despite being available in Excel 2010 through Microsoft 365, the “Compare and Merge Workbooks” command is not readily visible in the default Excel interface. To add it to your Quick Access Toolbar:

Click the dropdown arrow on the Quick Access Toolbar and select More Commands.
In the “Excel Options” dialog, choose All Commands from the “Choose commands from” dropdown menu.
Scroll down the list of commands and find Compare and Merge Workbooks. Select it and click the Add button to move it to the right-hand side panel.
Click OK to close the dialog and add the command to your Quick Access Toolbar.

Merging Workbook Copies

With the “Compare and Merge Workbooks” command now accessible, you can proceed to merge the copies:

Open the original, shared version of the workbook.
Click the Compare and Merge Workbooks command in your Quick Access Toolbar.
In the dialog box that appears, select the copies of the shared workbook that you want to merge. To select multiple copies, hold down the Shift key while clicking on the file names. Click OK to initiate the merge.

Excel will then merge the changes from the selected copies into the primary workbook.

Reviewing Merged Changes

To review all the changes made by different users in a consolidated view:

Go to the Review tab on the ribbon.
In the Changes group, click Track Changes and select Highlight Changes.
In the “Highlight Changes” dialog box, configure the settings as follows:
- In the When dropdown, select All.
- In the Who dropdown, select Everyone.
- Ensure the Where box is cleared.
- Check the Highlight changes on screen box.
- Click OK.

Excel will highlight columns and rows with changes in dark red. Cell-level edits from different users are marked with distinct colors. Hovering over a changed cell will display information about who made the edit.

Important Note: The “Compare and Merge Workbooks” feature is specifically designed for merging copies of a shared workbook. It will not work for merging completely different Excel files. If the command is greyed out, ensure you are working with the original shared workbook and attempting to merge copies derived from it.

Third-Party Tools for Advanced Excel Worksheet Comparison

While Excel’s built-in features offer basic to intermediate comparison capabilities, they may fall short when you require a comprehensive comparison across values, formulas, formatting, and structural elements. For advanced needs, third-party tools are available that provide more robust and efficient solutions for comparing XLS worksheets and workbooks.

These specialized tools often offer features beyond Excel’s native capabilities, such as:

Detailed comparison of formulas, formatting, and even VBA code.
Identification of inserted or deleted rows and columns with accuracy.
Comprehensive difference reports that are easy to understand and navigate.
Advanced merging options, allowing selective merging of differences.

Let’s explore some leading third-party tools in the market.

Synkronizer Excel Compare: A Comprehensive 3-in-1 Solution

Synkronizer Excel Compare is an Excel add-in designed for comparing, merging, and updating Excel files efficiently. It aims to automate the process of finding differences, saving users from manual and time-consuming comparisons.

Key features of Synkronizer Excel Compare include:

Detailed Difference Identification: Accurately identifies differences in values, formulas, cell formatting, comments, and defined names between two Excel worksheets or workbooks.
Intelligent Merging: Facilitates combining data from multiple Excel files into a unified version, minimizing duplicates and inconsistencies.
Difference Highlighting: Visually highlights discrepancies directly within the worksheets for easy review.
Customizable Comparison: Offers options to focus on relevant differences, ignore specific types of changes, and tailor the comparison to your specific needs.
Difference Reporting: Generates detailed, user-friendly difference reports that summarize changes and provide granular details.
Sheet Updating and Merging: Allows users to selectively merge or update worksheets based on the identified differences.

To illustrate Synkronizer Excel Compare in action, consider a scenario where you have two versions of an event participant list in Excel, potentially updated by different managers.

To use Synkronizer:

Navigate to the Add-ins tab in Excel and click the Synkronizer 11 icon to launch the add-in.

In the Synkronizer pane, select the two Excel workbooks you want to compare.

Choose the worksheets to compare. If workbooks contain sheets with identical names, Synkronizer automatically matches and selects them (e.g., “Participants” sheets in the example). You can manually select sheets or set criteria for matching, such as worksheet type (all, protected, hidden).

Select a comparison method:
- Compare as normal worksheets: Standard comparison for most cases.
- Compare with link options: For sheets without added/deleted rows/columns, enabling a “1 on 1” comparison.
- Compare as database: Recommended for sheets structured as databases.
- Compare selected ranges: For comparing specific ranges instead of entire sheets.
Choose content types to compare (optional). Under the Select tab in the Compare group, specify what to compare:
- Content: Include comments and names in addition to default values, formulas, and calculated values.
- Formats: Select cell formats like alignment, fill, font, border, etc.
- Filters: Ignore certain differences, such as case, spaces, formula variations with the same result, hidden rows/columns, etc.
Click the Start button to initiate the comparison process.

Analyzing and Visualizing Differences with Synkronizer

Synkronizer typically compares worksheets rapidly and presents results in two summary reports on the Results tab:

Summary Report: Provides an overview of all difference types found (columns, rows, cells, comments, formats, names).
Detailed Difference Report: Click on a specific difference type in the summary report to view a detailed breakdown of those differences.

Clicking on an entry in the detailed report navigates you to the corresponding cells in both worksheets, allowing direct inspection of the differences.

Synkronizer can also generate a separate difference report workbook, with hyperlinks to quickly jump to each difference.

For workbooks with multiple worksheets, Synkronizer compares all matching pairs and presents a summary report for each.

Difference Highlighting and Merging with Synkronizer

By default, Synkronizer highlights differences directly in the worksheets:

Yellow: Cell value differences.
Lilac: Cell format differences.
Green: Inserted rows.

You can customize highlighting to focus on specific difference types using the Outline button on the Results tab.

Synkronizer’s merge functionality allows you to selectively update differences from a source worksheet to a target worksheet. Select differences in the Synkronizer pane and use the update buttons to transfer individual cells, rows, or columns, streamlining the merging process.

Synkronizer Excel Compare offers a robust suite of features for comprehensive Excel worksheet comparison and merging. A trial version is available for download from their website.

Ablebits Compare Sheets for Excel: User-Friendly Worksheet Comparison

Ablebits Compare Sheets for Excel is another powerful tool, integrated within their Ultimate Suite for Excel add-in. It focuses on providing an intuitive and user-friendly experience for comparing worksheets.

Key aspects of Ablebits Compare Sheets include:

Step-by-Step Wizard: Guides users through the comparison process, simplifying configuration and option selection.
Comparison Algorithms: Offers multiple comparison algorithms tailored to different data structures, ensuring accurate results for various worksheet layouts.
Review Differences Mode: Presents compared worksheets in a side-by-side “Review Differences” mode, allowing users to view and manage differences directly and interactively.

Using Ablebits Compare Sheets involves these steps:

Click the Compare Sheets button, located on the Ablebits Data tab in the Merge group.
The wizard prompts you to select the two worksheets for comparison. You can choose entire sheets, current tables, or specific ranges.

Choose a comparison algorithm:
- No key columns (default): Best for sheet-based documents like invoices or contracts.
- By key columns: Suitable for column-organized data with unique identifiers (e.g., order numbers, product IDs).
- Cell-by-cell: Ideal for spreadsheets with identical layouts and sizes, such as financial statements or year-over-year reports.
Select a match type:
- First match (default): Compares a row in Sheet 1 to the first matching row in Sheet 2.
- Best match: Compares a row in Sheet 1 to the row in Sheet 2 with the most matching cells.
- Full match only: Identifies rows that are exactly identical in both sheets and marks others as different.

Specify which differences to highlight and ignore, including formatting differences and handling of hidden rows/columns.

Click Compare. Ablebits Compare Sheets automatically creates backup copies of your workbooks before processing.

Reviewing and Merging Differences with Ablebits

Once processed, worksheets are displayed side-by-side in the Review Differences mode, with differences highlighted and the first difference pre-selected.

Default highlighting in Review Differences mode:

Blue rows: Rows unique to Sheet 1 (left).
Red rows: Rows unique to Sheet 2 (right).
Green cells: Differing cells within partially matching rows.

Each worksheet has its own interactive toolbar for navigating differences. Use these toolbars to step through differences, decide whether to merge or ignore each one.

Upon completing the review, you are prompted to save changes and exit Review Differences mode. You can also exit and save progress or revert to backups at any time.

Ablebits Compare Sheets offers a user-friendly and effective solution for comparing Excel worksheets with a focus on visual review and interactive merging. A trial version is available as part of the Ultimate Suite from their website.

xlCompare and Change pro for Excel: Additional Comparison Tools

Other notable third-party tools for comparing XLS worksheets include:

xlCompare: xlCompare is a utility focused on comparing and merging workbooks, worksheets, names, and VBA projects. It offers features like duplicate record detection, data updating, and flexible filtering and highlighting of comparison results.
Change pro for Excel: Change pro for Excel by Litera allows comparison of worksheets on both desktop and mobile platforms. Key features include formula and value difference detection, layout change identification, embedded object recognition, and comprehensive difference reporting.

Online Excel Comparison Services: Quick and Accessible

For users seeking a quick, software-free solution to compare XLS worksheets, online Excel comparison services are available. These web-based tools allow you to upload two Excel files and compare them directly in your browser.

While convenient, consider security implications when using online services, especially with sensitive data. However, for non-confidential worksheets, online services can provide immediate comparison results.

Examples of online Excel comparison services include XLComparator and CloudyExcel. CloudyExcel, for instance, offers a simple interface where you upload two workbooks and click “Find Difference”.

CloudyExcel then highlights differences in the active sheets using color-coding.

Online services provide a basic, rapid way to compare Excel sheets for value differences, suitable for quick checks when advanced features or desktop software installation are not necessary.

Conclusion: Choosing the Right Method to Compare XLS Worksheets

Effectively comparing Excel worksheets is essential for data accuracy, collaboration, and efficient data management. This guide has explored a range of methods, from Excel’s built-in features to specialized third-party tools and online services.

Side-by-side viewing is ideal for quick visual checks of smaller datasets.
Formula-based comparison and conditional formatting offer analytical methods to highlight value differences within worksheets.
Compare and Merge Workbooks is designed for collaborative scenarios involving shared workbooks.
Third-party tools like Synkronizer Excel Compare and Ablebits Compare Sheets provide advanced features for comprehensive comparison and merging, handling formulas, formatting, and structural differences.
Online services offer a fast, accessible option for basic comparisons without software installation.

The best method to compare XLS worksheets depends on your specific needs, the complexity of your data, and the level of detail required in the comparison. By understanding the strengths and limitations of each approach, you can select the most efficient and effective method for your Excel worksheet comparison tasks. Explore the tools and techniques discussed to enhance your data analysis workflow and ensure data integrity in your spreadsheets.