Hints & Tips – Page 55 – STL

Save time and reduce errors by viewing two or more worksheets at the same time

It’s not uncommon to end up jumping between different Excel worksheets/workbooks because you are comparing data, copying & pasting or even creating links. This back and forth process takes up time and can increase the risk of error. Well there is a better way, here we will look at how to view two Excel worksheets side-by-side saving you time and reducing the potential for error.

Step 1

Click the View tab and click New Window. If you click one time on New Window you can arrange 2 worksheets side by side. If you click two times on New Window you can arrange 3 worksheets side by side and so on.

Step 2

On the View Tab click Arrange All.

Step 3

The Arrange Windows dialogue box will appear. You have different choices of how you want to arrange the Worksheets (tiled, horizontal, vertical or cascade). Select your choice and tick the check-box Windows of active workbook. Click OK.

Step 4

You will now have the worksheets arranged in front of you. Only one window (worksheet) will be active. In the screenshot below the first window is the active window. You can see which one is the active window by the colour. The active window is the window with the darker blue colour at the top of the window. To activate another window just click inside the window and it will be activate.

You will now be able to calculate, copy and paste and link cells between the arranged worksheets.

As we have just seen, to view two Excel worksheets side-by-side or even multiple Excel workbooks is a very quick process. It allows us to position the information we need to review in any way we wish and hopefully eases our daily use of Excel.

Arranging Windows in Excel 2013

In Excel 2013 (which is what we have used for these examples) viewing and arranging windows has been made even easier. For example you can quickly drag an Excel window to the side of the screen (a circle symbol displays on the edge of your screen) and “pin” it which means the window will automatically take up half of the screen.

Additional resources

Viewing two Excel 2010 workbooks at the same time

View two or more worksheets at the same time

How to view Spreadsheets side-by-side in Excel 2013

Save hours and eyesore by using freeze panes in Excel

Reviewing data in spreadsheets can be very demanding on the eyes and time consuming when you are trying to remember what a particular column or row of data actually is!

If you’re not already familiar with how to freeze panes in Excel, read on and save yourself some time.

Using freeze panes

To use Freeze Panes, open a workbook window, and click the Freeze Panes button on the View tab.

Clicking this button will display a menu of freeze options that you can choose from.

To freeze panes (columns and rows)

Select the first cell of data (for the area you wish to scroll through, not frozen!)
Go to the View tab
In the Window group, select Freeze Panes

To freeze panes (top row only)

Go to the View tab
In the Window group, select Freeze Top Row

To freeze panes (first column only)

Go to the View tab
In the Window group, select Freeze First Column

To unfreeze panes (any setting)

Go to the View tab
In the Window group, select Unfreeze Panes

By using freeze panes the time you save over multiple uses really can mean hours saved in the long run. This feature is also particularly useful when sharing Excel spreadsheets with others so as to enable easier navigation and hopefully comprehension of the data shared.

Difference between freezing and splitting panes

We have looked at how to freeze panes which are really useful when you wish to keep the headings for rows or columns of data from disappearing while you are scrolling through a spreadsheet. If you wish to have multiple views showing different areas of a spreadsheet you can use the Split option (found under the View tab) to create 2 or 4 split areas (which are scrollable) of your spreadsheet/worksheet.

More related information:

How to use Freeze Panes in Excel 2007

Freeze or lock rows and columns

Category: Hints & Tips

How to view two Excel worksheets side-by-side