If you have some very large worksheets, it could be useful if some of the cells you need to watch were displayed in a separate window so that you could see the current cell contents at a glance. Well you can! By using the Watch Window, you can pull out important cells into a separate window and keep track of them there, which saves you from having to scroll all over your worksheet.
Click on the Formulas tab on the Ribbon and locate the button titled Watch Window
Click on ADD WATCH at the upper left of the watch window to add cells to this.
In the new dialogue window, you can choose cells by either typing the cell in directly or you can select the cells with your mouse. You can also add a series of contiguous cells to the Watch Window by clicking and dragging your mouse to select a series of cells. When you are done, click ADD.
Any changes to the cell will immediately show up in the Watch Window. The Watch Window also reports the workbook and worksheet in which the cells reside and the name of the cell. You can even drag the Watch Window to either side of Excel to dock it so that it doesn’t take up space on the worksheet window. You can add cells from other worksheets within the same Excel workbook, but you can’t add cells from another workbook. Each workbook has its own separate Watch Window.
If you work with large spreadsheets, Watch Window is a real time saver and is likely to increase your productivity by allowing you to spend more time on your work and less time clicking around in Excel.
Author: Greg Sellers
Greg is the Sr. Manager of Network Operations within the Information Technology Services division, and has been with MFA Oil Company since 2013.