Organize worksheets and compare workbook windows in Excel

Quick answer: Copy or reorder sheet tabs to organize the workbook, then use View → New Window and View Side by Side to compare two sheets. A second window is another view of the same workbook, not an independent backup.

Version and platform: Microsoft 365 Excel for Windows desktop; Mac, Excel for the web and Excel 2013 interfaces not covered. Use a disposable workbook for the exercise.

Prepare two comparable sheets

Create a workbook named window-practice.xlsx with one sheet named Plan. Enter Item and Amount in A1:B1, then Hosting/80 in A2:B2 and Supplies/20 in A3:B3. Put Total in A4 and =SUM(B2:B3) in B4. The total should be 100.

Right-click the Plan tab and choose Move or Copy. Select Create a copy, choose where the copy should appear in Before sheet, and confirm. Rename the copied tab Actual. On Actual, change Hosting’s amount to 90 and Supplies to 25. Its total should now be 115, while Plan remains 100.

The Create a copy checkbox is crucial. Without it, Move or Copy reorganizes the original sheet instead of making a second comparison dataset. Verify that both tabs exist before changing Actual’s values.

Put the tabs in a useful order

Drag the Plan tab so it appears before Actual. Check the tab names and each total after the reorder. Moving a whole worksheet is different from copying only its cells, and moving sheets between workbooks can alter formulas or charts that depend on them. Keep this exercise within one workbook so you can focus on organization without creating external references.

Before moving real sheets, inspect references that span several sheets or depend on sheet order. The fact that this simple SUM stays correct does not prove a complex three-dimensional formula will be unaffected. Save the practice workbook with both sheets before opening extra windows.

Compare two sheets side by side

1. With window-practice.xlsx open, choose View → New Window.
2. Choose View → View Side by Side in the Window group.
3. In one workbook window select Plan; in the other select Actual.
4. Align the views so A1:B4 is visible in both. Compare Hosting 80 versus 90, Supplies 20 versus 25, and totals 100 versus 115.
5. If scrolling the views together helps, use Synchronous Scrolling while side-by-side mode is active. If it makes the comparison awkward, turn it off and navigate each view separately.

If other workbooks are open, Excel can ask which workbook to compare with. Select the intended practice window rather than assuming the first offered file is correct. View → Arrange All is an alternative for arranging multiple windows; use the active-workbook option when you want to limit the arrangement to its windows.

Prove the difference between a copy and a view

In the Actual window, change Supplies from 25 to 30. Actual’s total should become 120. Plan should remain 100, because Plan and Actual are different worksheets. Now switch the other window to Actual: it must show the same 120, because the two windows are viewing one underlying workbook.

This check prevents a dangerous misunderstanding. New Window does not protect you from editing the source or create a revision snapshot. To preserve an earlier workbook state, save a separate copy rather than relying on another window.

Finish and recover

Save, close the extra view and reopen the workbook. Verify both tabs, their order, and final totals Plan=100 and Actual=120. Window arrangement is a convenience; the important saved content is the worksheets and their formulas. If you accidentally moved rather than copied a sheet, restore from the saved checkpoint before treating it as a comparison copy. If a real cross-workbook move causes errors, inspect dependent formulas and charts rather than simply renaming the tab until the error disappears. These Window-group steps are for Windows desktop Excel, not browser tabs or macOS menu commands.

Official references

• Move or copy worksheets or worksheet data
• Compare two or more worksheets at the same time

Documentation snapshots retrieved 20 October 2026. These instructions and example checks are documentation-based; no native Excel run or application screenshot is claimed.