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Watch cells and formulas with the Watch Window

Feature deep dive
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Hello Office Insiders! I’m Steve Kraynak, a Program Manager on the Excel team. We’re thrilled to announce that Watch Window, a feature you know and love in Excel for Windows, is now available in Excel for Mac. This has been a recurring customer request from in-product feedback, forums, and UserVoice, and we’re delighted to bring it to you!

Watch Window

The Watch Window lets you keep an eye on cells across multiple sheets and books in a single pane. You can use it to check the values and formulas in cells that are not visible in the active worksheet, as well as inspect, audit, or confirm formula calculations and results in large worksheets. By using it, you don’t need to repeatedly scroll or go to different parts of your worksheet.Screenshot showing Watch Window feature in Excel for Mac.

How it works

You can move or dock the Watch Window as you do a toolbar or a pane. For example, you can dock it on the right side of the app window and keep track of the following cell properties: workbook, sheet, name, cell, value, and formula.

To access this feature, select Formulas > Watch Window.

To add cells to the Watch Window:

1. Select the cells that you want to watch.

a. To select all cells on a worksheet with formulas, select Home > Editing > Find & Replace > Go To Special > Formulas.

2. To display it, select Formulas > Watch Window.

3. To specify the selected cells as the range you want to watch, click Add Watch > Add.

4. Drag the title bar of the Watch Window to move it to the location you want. It can be a floating window, or it can be docked to the right side of the window.

5. To change the width of a column, drag the boundary on the right side of the column heading.

To remove cells:

1. To display the Watch Window, select Formulas > Watch Window.

2. To select the cells you want to remove, press Ctrl and then click the cells.

3. Click Delete Watch.

Availability

This feature is available to Insiders running Mac Fast Version 16.43 (Build 20110105) or later.

We typically release features over some time to ensure that things are working smoothly. This is true for Insiders as well. We highlight features that you may not have because they’re slowly releasing to larger numbers of Insiders. Sometimes we remove elements to further improve them based on your feedback. Though this is rare, we also reserve the option to pull a feature entirely out of the product, even if you, as Insiders, have had the opportunity to try them.

Feedback

Send us your feedback by clicking the Feedback button near the top-right corner in Excel.

Learn more about what other information you should include in your feedback to ensure it’s actionable and reaches the right people. We’re excited to hear from you!

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