Showing Changes in Excel on Desktop

The Show Changes tool is a valuable feature in Excel that allows you to view the changes made to a workbook. Whether you’re working alone or with others, this tool helps track edits, who made them, when they were made, and what exactly was changed.

This feature was first introduced in Excel for the web and later added to Excel for Microsoft 365 subscribers on both Windows and Mac.

What Changes Can You See?

The Show Changes tool allows you to track the following changes for up to 60 days:

• Edits to cell values and formulas.
• Changes involving moving, sorting, inserting, and deleting cells.

However, the tool does not track changes to:

• Charts, shapes, and objects.
• Pivot table operations.
• Formatting changes.
• Hidden cells or filtered data.
• Deleted locations.

How to Access the Show Changes Tool

1. Open your Excel workbook.
2. Go to the Review tab on the Excel ribbon.
3. In the Changes section, click Show Changes.

A panel will open on the right side of your screen, displaying a list of changes made to the workbook.

What You Can See in the Show Changes Panel

• Who made the change: The name of the person who edited the cell.
• When the change was made: The exact date and time of the edit.
• What was changed: The sheet, item, and specific cell that was edited.

To view the change in the sheet, click on the cell reference, sheet name, or the edit icon (pencil) in the sidebar, and the edited item will be highlighted in the sheet.

Using Filters to View Specific Changes

By default, the Show Changes tool will display all changes in the workbook. However, you can filter the changes to focus on specific sheets or ranges of cells:

1. Open the Show Changes sidebar.
2. Click the filter drop-down arrow at the top of the panel.
3. To filter by sheet, move your cursor to “Sheet” and select a specific sheet from the menu.
4. To filter by range, enter the cell range (including the sheet name) in the provided box, or select cells on the sheet to automatically populate the range box.
5. Click the green arrow to apply the filter.
6. To remove the filter and see all changes again, click Clear Filter in the drop-down menu.

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