How to use the Watch Window

Important values strewn across a workbook are difficult to track.

Whilst opening additional windows or splitting your view into panes are two ways of combatting the endless scrolling and tab switching — they’re not perfect.

An alternative is the Watch Window. This enables you to create a floating list of cells with the following details:

• Book
• Sheet
• Name
• Cell
• Value
• Formula

To find it, select Formulas > Watch Window.

The window stays on top when browsing or navigating, helping you inspect, audit, or confirm formula calculations.

It can also be docked to the top, side, or bottom of the main window.

Example in video

Historical sales data for the past five years is housed across several tabs. N8 is added to the Watch Window for each worksheet; this contains the total sales for the respective year.

A scenario is also created for 2022. After the March–July figures are copied across to August–December, the Watch Window updates accordingly, making it easy to do a comparison.