
You’ll find this method a valuable addition to your Excel toolset. Set a format to display the results and select OKĮxcel will then highlight the cells meeting the criteria you selected (e.g., greater than 100).
Enter the comparison parameters (e.g., is greater than 100).Select an existing Rule Set or create a new rule set by clicking New Rule.Select the Home menu then click Conditional Formatting.Highlight the cells containing the data you want to format.Open the sheet containing the data you want to format.This feature offers some very fast ways to compare and display data in Excel using a set of rules you can use to achieve your conditional formatting objectives. Using conditional formatting in ExcelĬonditional formatting is an under-used yet very powerful Excel feature that you may find useful.
#COMPARE TWO COLUMNS IN EXCEL DIFFERENT SHEETS WINDOWS#
If you have longer columns, enable Synchronous Scrolling (from the View Tab in the Windows Group) so that both workbooks scroll alongside each other. The last step, selecting Vertical displays the columns vertically, making it easier for you to read the results of your comparisons. The two workbooks will be shown horizontally next to each other by default, which is not ideal for comparing columns.
‘Then select Vertical to compare entries side-by-side. Select the View tab then click on the Window group This time you don’t need conditional formatting to do it. If you are comparing data from different sources and want to check for differences, similarities or other information quickly by hand, you can do that too. This technique works well if you collate data from multiple sources, providing you a quick way to check for duplicates or differences in the data. The active sheet should now display the duplicate values in the format you chose. Select a format to display and click OK. Compare A1 Sheet1 against the same cell in Sheet2. Select New Rule and type ‘=A1Sheet2!A1’ into the dialogue box. Click the Home menu, then select Conditional Formatting. Then select the first cell in the sheet (e.g., cell A1) then press Ctrl + Shift + End simultaneously. Open the sheet in which you want Excel to highlight the duplicates. If you want to compare data from two different sheets within the same workbook, you can use conditional formatting to do the comparisons, enabling you to compare data using a range of criteria: Change them to suit your own workbook as you see fit. The formula assumes you are comparing Sheet1 against Sheet2 both beginning at cell A1. The differences should then be highlighted as Sheet1 vs Sheet2:Difference1 etc. Drag the formula down the page for as many cells as the columns you are comparing contain. Open a new sheet and highlight the same cell the two columns you’re comparing start on. For this example, let’s say we have a column on Sheet 1 (starting at A1) and another column on Sheet 2 (also starting at A1) that we want to compare. So we have checked two columns for duplicates but what if you want to find differences? That is almost as straightforward. Compare two columns for differences in Excel Change them to reflect the columns you want to compare in your own workbook. Note that this formula assumes you are comparing Sheet1 against Sheet2 both beginning at cell A1. The differences should then be highlighted as Sheet1 vs Sheet2:Difference1 in the cell containing the differences. This simple process of checking for duplicates will make you more efficient and productive using Excel. The result of this process will be that each duplicate cell will be highlighted in both columns you are comparing. Drag the formula down the column for each of the cells you want to compare in the two columns in question.
Highlight the same top cell (i.e., A1) in the column in Sheet1.