Compare workbook details and set ignore rules

Start with both files

Suppose you review a weekly Excel report. You care if an order count changes, but the export time changes every week. Let's compare two copies and decide what deserves a closer look. In Two files, choose the approved report as your baseline and the current report as your new output. Open Comparison options.

Under Workbook details, leave Numeric tolerance at No user tolerance. Leave both checkboxes selected and click Compare. These two files produce six differences on the Summary sheet. Notice B2 and B3. One is an average that moved from four to four point zero zero four. The other is an order count that jumped from one twenty to one twenty-seven.

Allow a rounding difference

For this report, a difference of one hundredth of a unit is acceptable. Choose zero point zero one under Numeric tolerance, then compare again. The gap in B2 is four thousandths, so that finding disappears. The seven extra orders in B3 still show up. Five differences remain. The tolerance uses the units stored in each numeric cell. It applies across the workbook.

Check formulas and rich text

Now look at B4. Both files show seventy-five. The approved sheet adds two cells with a plus sign. The current sheet sums the same two cells with the SUM function. Clear Compare formulas and run it again. Four differences remain. The app reads the saved values from Excel. Turn formula comparison back on when you need to catch an edit even when the answer still matches.

With Compare formulas back on, clear Compare rich-text formatting and click Compare. In B5, the word review became bold inside the phrase Needs review. That finding disappears. B6 still has its own formatting finding because someone added a border to the whole cell. This checkbox controls styling within the text. Switch it back on before the next run.

Exclude an expected change

Our export time lives in B7. Scroll down to Ignore rules. Under Ignore when, choose Cell or location. In the matches box, enter B7, a colon, then B7 again. That is a range exactly one cell wide and one cell tall. It matches that address on every sheet being compared. Our example has one sheet. Select Add rule, then Compare.

This time we have four differences to review and one ignored. The ignored time change has its own count and uses none of the per-file difference limit. Other rules can match a difference category, worksheet name, changed property, or file path. For example, in a worksheet name rule, Cover followed by an asterisk matches any sheet name starting with Cover, regardless of capitalization.

Remove a rule and check again

To put the export time back in the comparison, click the small cross beside the rule and run Compare again. The time is back and the count returns to five. The average in B2 is still within tolerance. You can use the same sequence on your own report. Change one setting, rerun the pair, and check which finding moved.