Steps to Track Changes in Excel
Below is a sample table that shows how to track changes in excelTrack Changes In ExcelTracking changes in Excel is a technique of highlighting changes made in a shared worksheet by any user. It highlights the cell that has been modified. This option is present in the “changes” section of the review tab and can be enabled when we share a workbook.read more.
Viewing Changes in Separate Sheet
Step 1: Highlight changes can also record changes made to the cells available in a separate sheet. It allows different users to make changes to the workbook. For this, we must go to “Review” -> “Share Workbook (Legacy).”
Step 2: After selecting the “Share Workbook (Legacy),” a window may pop up. Now, choose the box to “Use the old shared workbooksShared WorkbooksTo share the workbook, open the desired workbook>click on review tab>choose share workbook option>a dialogue box with “editing” and “advanced” tab will open>mark the required checkbox, save changes> upload the file to network location>send the link to the concerned person.read more features instead of the new co-authoring experience.” Then click “OK.”
Step 3: Next, go to “Review” – > “Track Changes” -> “Highlight Changes,” as shown in Step 1.Step 4: Select the “Who” checkbox to enable other users to change the workbook once the window pops up. Then, select the checkbox for “List changes on a new sheet” to view all the changes made in a new sheet. Then, click “OK.”Again, click “OK” for the prompt to save the actions.
Step 5: This will trigger a new sheet to generate named “History” tab, as shown below.
As we can see, Excel provides all the information related to any change in the cell. The “Action Type” and “Losing Action” indicate if there are any conflicting changes or changes done to the same cell by different users.
- Now, to enable “Track Changes,” we must go to the “Review” tab and click on “Track Changes,” and select “Highlight Changes.” After selecting the “Highlight Changes,” a window may pop up. “Highlight Changes” detect any change in the workbook shared with other users. Then, select the checkbox for “Track changes while editing. This also shares your workbook” Excel needs to keep track of records for any change made in the shared workbook. Now, select “When” for the desired time and the “Who” checkbox for whose changes need to be tracked and highlighted for changes. The “Highlight changes on screen” box is selected to indicate the cell where the records are changed and provide details in the comments at the corner of the cells. And click “OK” to save the actions in the workbook. We would highlight any changes in the workbook in the cell borders and the details of users in the comments. The comments will be available in the upper left corner of the cell with the user’s name, who has made the changes to the cell, and the content change. As we can see, we made the changes in two cells, D4. The comment box may appear by hovering the cursor over the highlighted cells.
“Highlight Changes” detect any change in the workbook shared with other users.
As we can see, we made the changes in two cells, D4. The comment box may appear by hovering the cursor over the highlighted cells.
The “History” tab can be saved as a separate workbook or regenerated again to see any new changes done by different users. When selecting the “List changes on a new sheet” checkbox, they may merge the new changes into the existing records.
Accept or Reject Changes in Workbook
Step 1: To accept or reject the changes made by a different user in the workbook, we must go to “Review” -> “Track Changes” -> “Accept/Reject Changes.”
Step 2: “Accept/Reject Changes” would pop up a window that needs to be configured for the selections below.
“When” checkbox selection would ask for the changes which have not been reviewed yet or since date.
“Who” checkbox selection chooses “Everyone,” “Everyone but Me,” or a specific user. Then, click “OK.”
- Step 3: Once the above selections are made, a pop-up may ask whether the changes made be accepted, rejected, or to keep the original content.
If there are any conflicts, if different users have made changes to the same cell, then the pop-up will list down all the changes made to the specific cell, and we can make the selections to accept anyone’s record.
How to Change Number of Days for Maintaining Track History?
Generally, the track changes in Excel for the records are usually maintained for 30 days by default. However, we can change this as per convenience by going to “Review” -> “Share Workbook (Legacy).”
After the selections, a pop-up window will appear, as seen in the below image. Then in the “Advanced” tab, we can change the history to the desired number of days. Else, Excel would take the default settings. Then click on “OK” once the necessary settings are updated.
How to Disable Track Changes?
Go to “Review” -> “Track Changes,” then select “Highlight Changes.”
Once the pop-up window appears, uncheck the box for “Track changes while editing.” Click “OK.” Then, turn off tracking and stop sharing the workbook with other users.
Things to Remember
- Once the track changes are enabled, the workbook becomes a shared file, which means that other users could also access the Excel file.In cells, only content changes are tracked. Therefore, it would not consider other changes such as formatting or grouping.It will maintain the track record changes for only 30 days by default. It could be changed by following how to keep track of history.The option for undo is not available. However, once the changes are made to the cell, we can bring them to their original content by accepting or rejecting them in “Track Changes.”
Recommended Articles
This article has been a guide to Track Changes in Excel. Here, we discuss how track changes work in Excel, including accepting or rejecting changes, maintaining track history, and disabling track changes, along with examples and a downloadable Excel template. You may learn more about Excel from the following articles: –
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