There was a time when people in offices used to maintain a lot of files through documents involving a lot of paper. It used to create problems because maintaining paper was not easy task and a lot of time used to be wasted in finding the required documents. However, the era of computers has recognized this and everybody has moved from paper based documents to paperless documents. The latter are not only easy to create and maintain but also can be stored properly for future reference.
The software that is being widely used for this purpose is the Microsoft Office, with different applications that are used for creating any kind of documents. For instance, Microsoft Word can create letters, articles and projects; Microsoft Excel is used for making spreadsheets and workbooks; and the Microsoft Power Point is universally used for making presentations.
One of the most efficient and useful applications created by Microsoft is Excel, a spreadsheet based application that is used for making calculations, inserting tables and graphs, macros etc. There are times when for a particular project, all the members of a team are working on the same Excel document, which enables most of them to make certain changes in the document at any time. In scenarios like these, it gets difficult to find out what changes were made by whom. Excel provides a way where you can easily keep track of the changes, and it can be known what changes were made, who made them, and when were they made.
How to keep track of changes in Excel
Learning to keep track of changes in Excel can be made simple by following a few steps.
Step 1: Open the Excel application by clicking on ‘start’ on the desktop toolbar.
Step 2: Open the file for which you would like to track changes.
Step 3: Click on the ‘Tools’ menu and select ‘Track changes’.
Step 4: If you want to see the changes while you are editing, click on ‘Highlight changes’, and then click on the boxes that are labeled as ‘Track Changes while Editing’ and ‘Highlight Changes on Screen’.
Step 5: Now you need to decide who would be making changes in the worksheet and select the ‘Who’ tab for choosing the users. If you select the option ‘Everyone’, the file would be shared on the network.
Step 6: To decide when changes are tracked, select the ‘When’ option.
Step 7: For saving your options, click on OK.
Turning on the ‘Track Changes’ option creates a shared worksheet that enables the users on the network to open the file simultaneously and make changes, which would enable you to see which user made which changes. It should always be remembered to save the files after editing, or the changes will be lost.
So if you are working on a team and the same document is being used by multiple people, you do not need to remember the changes but simply follow the above steps for making it easier for you.
