Compare 2 excel files free

To point out the row and columns with differences, Excel highlights the column letters and row numbers in a dark red color. At the cell level, edits from different users are marked with different colors. To see who made a specific change, just hover over the cell.

As you have just seen, Microsoft Excel provides a handful of features to compare data in two or more workbooks. But none of the built-in options is sufficient to comprehensively compare Excel sheets, let alone entire workbooks, spotting all the differences in values, formulas or formatting.

So, if you need advanced and really efficient means to compare two Excel files, then most likely you would have to use one of the third-party tools specially designed for comparing, updating and merging Excel sheets and workbooks. Below you will find a quick overview of a few tools that, in my opinion, are best performers in this area.

The Synkronizer Excel Compare add-in can quickly compare, merge and update two Excel files saving you the trouble of searching for differences manually.

If you are looking for a quick and reliable method to compare two Excel sheets or workbooks, you will certainly find helpful the following features of Synkronizer Excel Compare:. To get some basic idea about Synkronizer Excel Compare's capabilities and performance, let's carry out a couple of field tests. Supposing you are organizing some event and, in your Excel table, you gather information about the participants such as a participant name, arrival date, number of seats, etc. Also, you have a couple of managers in direct contact with participants and the database, and as a result, you have 2 versions of the same Excel file.

Okay, let's see how efficiently Synkronizer can compare our two sheets and identify differences between them. The Synkronizer pane will show up in the left part of your Excel window, where you do the following:. If the selected workbooks have any sheets with the same names, all those sheets will be matched and automatically selected for comparison like Participants sheets in the below screenshot.

Also, you can select worksheets manually or instruct the add-in to match sheets by other criteria, for example by worksheet type - all, protected, or hidden. Once you've selected the sheets, the Synkronizer add-in will open them side by side, arranged vertically or horizontally, like in Excel's View Side by Side mode. Select one of the following comparison options: Compare as normal worksheets - the default option that works in most cases.

Compare with link options - if the selected sheets do not contain any new or deleted rows and columns, you can compare them "1 on 1". Compare as database - recommended for comparing sheets that have a database structure. Compare selected ranges - if you do not want to compare the entire sheets, define the ranges to be compared.

Choose the content types to be compared optional. On the Select tab, in the Compare group, you can choose the content type s relevant to your current task:.

Usually it takes Synkronizer only a few seconds to compare 2 sheets and present two summary reports on the Results tab:. The following screenshot shows the summary report in the upper part of the Results pane , and cell difference report in the lower part of the pane that were created for our sample sheets:.

Clicking on a difference in the detailed report will select the corresponding cells on both sheets the below screenshot shows just one sheet because there's enough room to show both :. In addition, you can create a difference repot in a separate workbook, either standard or hyperlinked, and jump to a specific difference with a mouse click:. If the two Excel files you are comparing contain multiple sheets, all matching worksheet pairs will be presented in the summary report for your perusal:.

By default, the Synkronizer Excel Compare add-in highlights all found differences, like in the following screenshot:. To highlight only the relevant differences , click the Outline button on the Results tab, and select the required options:. The merge function is definitely one of the most useful features of the Synkronizer Excel Compare add-in. To update one or more differences, select them on the Synkronizer's pane and click one of the 4 update buttons - the first and last buttons update all differences , while the 2 nd and 3 rd buttons update selected differences only the button arrows indicate the transfer direction :.

Well, these are the key features of the Synkronizer add-in, but there is certainly much more to it. Want to give it a try? An evaluation version is available for download here. Synkronizer is certainly worth your attention, but it's not the only way to compare files in Excel.

A handful of other comparison tools exist, which basically provide the same set of features but in different implementations. The latest version of our Ultimate Suite includes over 40 new features and improvements, the most exciting of which is Compare Sheets - our own tool to compare worksheets in Excel. Now, let's try the tool on our sample spreadsheets from the previous example and see if the results are any different. By default, the entire sheets are selected, but you can also select the current table or a specific range by clicking the corresponding button: On the next step, you select the comparison algorithm: No key columns default - works best for sheet-based documents like invoices or contracts.

By key columns - is appropriate for column-organized sheets that have one or more unique identifiers such as order numbers or product ID's. Cell-by-cell - best to be used to compare spreadsheets with the same layout and size, like balance sheets or year-to-year reports. If you are unsure which option is right for you, go with the default one No key columns. Whichever algorithm you select, the add-in will find all the differences, it will only highlight them differently entire rows or individual cells.

On the same step, you can choose the preferred match type :. In this example, we will look for Best match by using the default No key columns comparing mode: Finally, specify which differences to highlight and which to ignore, and how to mark the differences.

Cell formatting is important to us, so we select Show differences in formatting. Hidden rows and columns are irrelevant, and we tell the add-in to ignore them: Click the Compare button and allow the add-in a couple of minutes to process your data and make the backup copies. Backups are always created automatically, so you may not worry about the safety of your data. Review and merge differences Once the worksheets are processed, they are opened side-by-side in a special Review Differences mode, with the first difference selected:.

This will open a window where you can navigate to one of the two Excel documents you want to compare. Make sure to select a file for both fields. Once you've selected this, a pop-up message should appear at the top of the page letting you know that the file upload process has begun and that larger files will take longer to process. Click Ok to close this message. Select the columns you want to be scanned. Underneath each file name is a drop-down menu that says Select a column.

Click on the drop-down menu for each file to select the column you want to be highlighted for comparison. Column names will be visible when you click the drop-down menu. Select contents for your result file. There are four options with bubbles next to them in this category, one of which you'll need to select as the formatting guidelines for your result document. Select the options to ease column comparison. Click the checkbox for both before proceeding. This will take you to the download page for your result document.

Download your comparison document. Once you've uploaded your workbooks and set your parameters, you'll have a document showing comparisons between data in the two files available for download.

Click the underlined Click here text in the Download the comparison file box. If you want to run any other comparisons, click New comparison in the bottom-right corner of the page to restart the file upload process. Method 4. Locate your workbook and sheet names. The first row is the name of the column. Create a comparison workbook. We will work on Book3. Place the title of the column. Grab it from the bottom right square and drag it, copying all names.

Name the second column. For example Estimate the difference of each product. B2 You can do any normal Excel operation with the referred cell from the referred file.

Drag down the lower corner square and get all differences, as before. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. Remember it is important to have the referred files closed.

If you have them opened, Excel may override what you type in the cell, making it impossible to access the file afterward unless again you have it open. Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0. Submit a Tip All tip submissions are carefully reviewed before being published. You Might Also Like How to. How to. About This Article. Co-authored by:. Co-authors: 5. Updated: February 24, Thanks to conditional formatting, you can ensure that nothing slips through the net. Excel is good at monotonous and detail-oriented jobs.

Once you have a grasp of its capabilities, you can often save yourself some time and effort by using a technique like conditional formatting and a bit of ingenuity. When you need to do more than compare documents, but find specific values, you should get familiar with Excel's vlookup function. Wondering what to do with your old hard drives? Don't throw them out! Turn it into a DIY external hard drive or many other things. Need to compare two Microsoft Excel files?

Here are two easy ways to do so. Share Share Tweet Email. Brad Jones Articles Published. English writer currently based in the US. Find me on Twitter via radjonze.

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