When comparing Excel files, the simplest approach is to select the two files to compare and then press [Compare]. 4TOPS Excel Compare subsequently compares all the sheets in the two files and reports the differences.
If the two files contain tables where records may have been added or removed then this approach is not effective as is shown in the following fragment:
| A | B | C | D | E | |
| 1 | Product ID | Product Name | Quantity Per Unit | Unit Price | Units In Stock |
| 2 | 1 | Chai | 10 boxes x 20 bags | 18 | 39 |
| 3 | 2 | Chang | 24 - 12 oz bottles | 20 19 | 17 |
| 4 | 3 | Aniseed Syrup | 12 - 550 ml bottles | 10 | 13 |
| 5 | 4 | Chef Anton's Cajun Seasoning | 48 - 6 oz jars | 22 | 53 |
| 6 | 5 | Chef Anton's Gumbo Mix | 36 boxes | 21.35 | 0 |
| 7 | 6 | Grandma's Boysenberry Spread | 12 - 8 oz jars | 25 | 120 |
| 8 | 8 7 | Northwoods Cranberry Sauce Uncle Bob's Organic Dried Pears | 12 - 12 oz jars 12 - 1 lb pkgs. | 40 30 | 6 15 |
| 9 | 9 8 | Mishi Kobe Niku Northwoods Cranberry Sauce | 18 - 500 g pkgs. 12 - 12 oz jars | 97 40 | 29 6 |
| 10 | 10 9 | Ikura Mishi Kobe Niku | 12 - 200 ml jars 18 - 500 g pkgs. | 31 97 | 31 29 |
The only real difference found is line 3 unit price. From line 8 on every cell is considered different. While this is true, it is not very informative. We want to know that the only difference at line 8 is that a line has been added (or removed) and that for the rest there were no differences. To achieve this we have to specify that we are dealing with tables, see Comparing tables in worksheets. For other approaches see Tutorial)