Excel 2007 Watch Window

If you're like many Excel fanatics, you probably deal with large spreadsheets and multiple cells containing formulas.

Excel 2007 has a great new feature that lets you "watch" cell contents as they change.  If numbers are added, subtracted, and changed, these specific cells are probably something you'd have to remember to review in previous versions of Excel.

To turn on the "Watch Window," follow these steps.

Highlight the cells you want to "Watch."

Click on the "Formula" tab and select the "Watch Window" button in the "Formula Auditing" group.

Click on the "Add Watch" button.

Since the cells were highlighted, simply click on the "OK" button and the cells will be added to the "Watch Window."



Now when you make changes to the spreadsheet, the "Watch Window" shows you the changes to the cells you added to the list.

If you accidentally close the "Watch Window," simply click on the "Formula" tab and then the "Watch Window" button to open it again.

Excel 2007 Quick Tip

Many of you have seen the improvements made in Excel 2007; but most users have still not learned all of the handy new features.

One of these new features is located in the "Recent Documents" area.

We've all seen the recent documents list and I've shown ways to change the number of recent documents as well as turning them on and off.

But, did you know you can "Pin" specific documents to the "Recent Documents" list?

To do so, simply click on the "Office" button to bring up the "Recent Documents" list.

Move the mouse to the spreadsheet you want to keep on this list permanently and click on the "Pin" icon on the right side of the spreadsheet name.

See image below.



The spreadsheet will remain on the list as more spreadsheets are added.

HINT:  This is an Office 2007 feature and may be used in Word 2007, PowerPoint 2007, etc.

To "unpin" the spreadsheet, simply click on the "Pin" icon again to "unpin" the spreadsheet from the list.

How Green is Your Excel?

Have you seen the little green triangle in the upper left corner of a cell in Excel?

What is this green triangle?

It simply tells you that something is wrong with the formula in the cell.  It may not create an error message; but when you click on the green triangle, you'll see a yellow exclamation point.

Click on the drop down next to the yellow exclamation point and Excel will provide some possible answers.

If you have Excel 2007 or 2010, the yellow exclamation point provides you with a "trace error" function which helps follow the formula to find out where there may be a mistake.

Understand these "smart tags" like the green triangle and you'll be able to correct errors without a lot of frustration.