View Excel workbooks side by side
In this article you will find how to compare two spreadsheets by viewing them simultaneously in Excel 2016, 2013 and 2010
You'd like to compare two Excel worksheets and need to open and see them side by side. However simple it may seem, each time they appear in the same window. That's frustrating! So we will show you how to view two Excel files (.xls or .xlsx) side by side in this step by step tip. You may want to choose one of the following options:
- Open and view two workbooks/worksheets side by side in the same window:
- see two different workbooks at the same time
- view two different spreadsheets of the same Excel book at once
- Or you may want to see two or more workbooks in several windows.
Find it on the View tab
Let's begin with the first option. As a start, open the two workbooks you want to compare. You can see now that there are two task-bar buttons for Excel. Whichever workbook you click, it appears in the same window. Find the Window section on the View tab and then click View Side by Side.
Arrange the sheets to your liking
By default, this will show your spreadsheets in separate panes horizontally. You may want to change the orientation. So you can click the Arrange All button and choose Vertical to have your tables side by side in the left-hand and the right-hand columns.
There is one more option that you may like. Click Synchronous Scrolling to scroll down both spreadsheets at the same time and compare the differences.
Excel will remember your last side by side view selection to open future files.
Sometimes it is necessary to view several sheets of one and the same Excel workbook. So all you need is to open this workbook and click the New Window button on the View tab. Then pick the View side by side option. You can click New Window again to view as many spreadsheets of the same workbook as you need.
See two or more workbooks in several Excel windows
You may want to see several Excel workbooks in different windows. It can be really handy if you've got two monitors. So first open one file. Then run one more copy of Excel from the Start menu. As a result you will be able to open another workbook in this new window and modify it to your liking.
We hope this snap tip will help everyone compare data from two workbooks or worksheets.
