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Mac Forum / Applications / Excel / December 2005How compare two files?
Someone was saying to me that there is a way to take two very similar files and have excel examine them, and let you know what is missing from one of the files that is in the other file. If possible, how does one do this? Thanks. OS 10.4.3 Office 2004 I'm not sure, maybe new excel have such ability. If this is one time task, you can use our Compare It! tool from http://www.grigsoft.com/ - it can handle xls files. Igor Green http://www.grigsoft.com/ Compare It! + Synchronize It! - files and folders comparison never was easier! Hello - Perhaps they were referring to the Merge Workbooks feature, but AFAIK there is no "compare' feature in Excel. In order to use the Merge certain conditions must be met before hand... You can't just merge _any_ two workbooks. The following criteria is from Excel Help where you can find more info on the Merge Workbooks feature: > All workbooks must be copies of the same workbook. > The original workbook must be a shared workbook that has the change history feature turned on (see Notes below). > The workbook copies either must not have passwords or must all have the same password. > Each workbook copy must have its own unique file name. HTH |:>) On 12/16/05 8:55 PM, in article BFC8B01B.1296D%studiok4485@hotmail.com, > Someone was saying to me that there is a way to take two very similar files > and have excel examine them, and let you know what is missing from one of [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > OS 10.4.3 > Office 2004 > Someone was saying to me that there is a way to take two very similar files > and have excel examine them, and let you know what is missing from one of > the files that is in the other file. > > If possible, how does one do this? Thanks. I don't know of any utilities that look at entire workbooks (though it wouldn't be that hard to build one, I suspect). Myrna Larson and Bill Manville wrote an excellent add-in that compares two worksheets at at time (not entire workbooks). You can download it from http://www.cpearson.com/excel/download.htm (look for "Compare"). The dialogs are sized for Windows, so they don't look very pretty in MacXL, but the add-in works fine. Thanks JE, I'll check it out. Thanks Igor: Looks good, but only for windows your software, NO? This is Mac excel forum. On 12/17/05 7:54 AM, in article jemcgimpsey-B6553F.08540717122005@msnews.microsoft.com, "JE McGimpsey" <jemcgimpsey@mvps.org> wrote: >> Someone was saying to me that there is a way to take two very similar files >> and have excel examine them, and let you know what is missing from one of [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > (look for "Compare"). The dialogs are sized for Windows, so they don't > look very pretty in MacXL, but the add-in works fine. OS 10.4.3 Office 2004 In article <BFC8B01B.1296D%studiok4485@hotmail.com>, kevs <studiok4485@hotmail.com> wrote: > Someone was saying to me that there is a way to take two very similar files > and have excel examine them, and let you know what is missing from one of > the files that is in the other file. > > If possible, how does one do this? Thanks. For single worksheets, the easiest way would be to create a new worksheet / document and type into the cell A1 the formula: = IF(Sheet1!A1 = Sheet2!A1, "", "* DIFFERENT *") Where "Sheet1!A1" and "Sheet2!A1" are the A1 cells in the two worksheets being compared - when typing the forumla you just need to swap to the appropriate worksheet / document and click in cell A1 (when swapping back you may need to manually delete some extra text). Press the Enter key to accept the formula. Then click on cell A1 again and either: - do a Select All or - select enough cells to cover the ones you want to compare then do a Fill Right and Fill Down (both in the Edit menu). It can take a while on older computers and needs extra memory added to the Execl's allocation for Mac OS 9 users. Any cells that are different between Sheet1 and Sheet2 will then contain the text "* DIFFERENT *". :o) Helpful Harry Hopefully helping harassed humans happily handle handiwork hardships ;o) BTW Anyone know how to use the compare add in. I just downloaded it and see an .xla file on my desktop. I have no idea what to do with it. Thanks! > Anyone know how to use the compare add in. > I just downloaded it and see an .xla file on my desktop. > I have no idea what to do with it. Thanks! You can find the instructions in the "Load or unload an add-in program" topic in XL Help. Put the add-in where you want it (it's OK to leave it on the desktop). In XL, choose Tools/Add-ins... Click "Select" (or "Browse", depending on the XL version) in the Add-ins dialog. Navigate to wherever you stored the add-in. Click Open. IN the Add-ins dialog, the add-in should now be listed with its checkbox checked. Click OK to install the add-in. The Compare add-in adds a menu item to your Tools menu: Compare WorkSheets... Choose that menu item to compare your sheets. |
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