Problem: You have two workbooks open. One workbook contains a listing of airport codes and their respective cities. In the other workbook, you are building a list of recommended packing items for students going on seven-city tours. Currently, you are shifting back and forth between the workbooks, using Alt+Tab every time that you forget an airport code. It would be cool if you could see the airline codes at the same time you were working on the other workbook.
Strategy: There are four Arrange options on the Window dialog. Select Window – Arrange – Vertical to see both worksheets side by side.
Result: As shown in Fig. 49, you will see both windows, side by side. The window with the darker toolbar is the active window. Any data entry will occur in the active cell of that workbook. You can resize the window widths, although this requires two moves.
- First, make the right window narrower by dragging the blue edge
of the window to the right.
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Next, drag the blue right edge of the left workbook to be wider.
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To go back to full screen mode choose the Maximize icon at the top of each workbook.
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Gotcha: If you have additional workbooks open, they will also appear
side by side. The side-by-side display works fine for two or three workbooks,
but may not work for ten open workbooks.
Additional Information: In Excel 2003, a new option on the Window
menu allows you to Compare Side by Side. If you have only two workbooks
open, the menu option will name the other workbook. If you have three or more workbooks open, you will have to select a workbook in a new dialog box. If there is only one workbook open, the option will be grayed out. This will arrange two windows vertically and allow the scrolling action in the first workbook to cause the second workbook to scroll in a similar manner.
TIP: If you are comparing two workbooks that are supposed to be
similar, it is likely that someone added some rows to one document
or the other. In Fig. 55, the workbooks are synchronized
so that when you see row 154 in one window, you see row 154 in
the other window. In reality, row 159 of the left window matches
row 154 in the right window and they will be scrolling out of
synchronization. Follow these steps to correct the problem:
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In the Compare Side by Side toolbar, turn off synchronous scrolling.
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Use the down arrow key until row 159 is at the top of the left window. Choose the Synchronous Scrolling icon again (see Fig. 56) to force the workbooks to scroll together. Now, when you move down 10 rows in either workbook, both workbooks will scroll together.
Summary: Arranging windows in a vertical fashion allows you to view two different workbooks at the same time.
Commands Discussed: Window – Arrange; Window – Compare Side by Side
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