Tidyfield Compare documentation

Tidyfield Compare is an Excel add-in that compares workbooks and sheets and merges the differences you choose. It runs inside Excel on Windows, Mac and the web.

Install

Tidyfield Compare is installed from this website, not from Microsoft AppSource. You download one small file (the add-in manifest) and add it to Excel once. The install page has step-by-step instructions for each version of Excel. In short:

• Excel on the web: Home, Add-ins, More Add-ins (or Advanced), My Add-ins, Upload My Add-in, then choose the file.
• Excel for Mac: copy the file into Excel's add-in folder once, then pick it under Home, Add-ins.
• Excel for Windows: put the file in a shared folder, add that folder as a trusted add-in catalog in Excel's Trust Center, then add it from the Shared Folder tab.
• Everyone in a Microsoft 365 organisation: an admin uploads the file in the Microsoft 365 admin center under Settings, Integrated apps, Upload custom apps.

After that, a Compare button in a Tidyfield group appears on the Home tab. Click it to open the task pane.

Compare

Open the task pane and pick one of three modes.

• Workbook vs file: the open workbook is "before", the file you choose is "after". Use this when a colleague sent back an edited copy and you want to see and merge their changes.
• Two sheets: two sheets of the open workbook, first is before, second is after. Merge writes into the first sheet.
• Two files: two saved files, without touching the open workbook. Report and CSV only.

Click Compare. Reading a large workbook shows progress per sheet. The file you choose is read in the task pane; it is not uploaded.

Reading results

The summary chips show counts of Changed (both sides have a value, values differ), Added (empty before, value after), Removed (value before, empty after) and Formula (same value, different formula). Click a chip to filter. Below that, each sheet lists its differences as cell before → after. Click a row to jump to that cell in the workbook. Rows that exist only on one side are shown with every non-empty cell of that row.

Sheets are matched by name (case-insensitive). A sheet present on one side only is listed as such, with its contents counted as added or removed.

Options

• Match rows. Automatically finds inserted and deleted rows so the rows below them line up. By position compares row 1 with row 1 and so on. By key column pairs rows that share the same value in the column(s) you name, for example an ID in column A; order does not matter.
• Header rows: rows at the top that are always matched by position (default 1).
• Numeric tolerance: numbers closer than this count as equal (0 means exact).
• Match sheets: by name (default) or by position.
• Compare formulas: off means only values are compared.
• Ignore letter case, Ignore extra spaces, Treat empty text as blank: text normalisation before comparing.

Options are remembered on this device.

Highlight and clear

Highlight colours the workbook cell of every listed difference: yellow for changed, green for added, red for removed, blue for formula changes. The previous fill of each cell is remembered inside the workbook, so Clear restores it even after you close and reopen the file. Up to 5,000 cells are coloured per run.

Merge

Tick the differences you want (or Select all after filtering), then click Merge selected. The "after" value or formula is written into the workbook cell. Removed cells are cleared. Rows that exist only on the other side are skipped, because the add-in does not insert rows yet; their contents are listed so you can copy them. Changes made by add-ins cannot be undone with Ctrl+Z, so Tidyfield Compare writes the previous contents of every merged cell to a sheet named "Tidyfield merge log". Keep a copy of the file before large merges, and run Compare again afterwards to see what is left.

Report sheet and CSV

Report sheet adds a sheet named "Compare report" with a summary per sheet and one row per difference (sheet, cell, change, before, after, formulas). Running it again replaces the sheet. CSV downloads the same list for audit files or email.

Licence

Every install starts a 14-day trial of Pro. After that the free plan shows the first 100 differences and turns off merge, highlight, report and CSV. To unlock Pro, buy a key on the pricing page, then click License at the bottom of the task pane, paste the key and click Activate. A key works on up to 3 devices; use Deactivate on this device to free a slot. The add-in re-checks the key weekly and keeps working offline for 30 days.

Limits

• Files: .xlsx and .xlsm. Save .xls or .csv as .xlsx first. Password-protected files cannot be read.
• Columns are matched by position. Inserting a column shows as changes across that column (key matching for columns is planned).
• Merged cells: only the top-left cell carries a value.
• Values are compared as Excel stores them. Dates are serial numbers, so a date shown as 1 Jan 2024 appears as 45292 in the list.
• Up to 50,000 differences are listed per sheet; the counts are always complete.

Troubleshooting

The add-in button is missing

Close and reopen Excel. On Excel for the web, add-ins you uploaded appear under Home, Add-ins. If an admin deployed it, it can take up to 24 hours to show. Still missing? Repeat the steps on the install page; on Mac, check the file is still in the add-in folder after an Office update.

"Could not read" a file

The file is not .xlsx/.xlsm, is password protected, or is damaged. Open it in Excel and Save As .xlsx.

Everything shows as changed

Rows are probably shifted. Switch Match rows to Automatically, or to a key column if the sheet has an ID column. Check Header rows too.

Numbers look different but are the same

Floating point. Set a numeric tolerance such as 0.0001.

Still stuck

Email support@tidyfieldapps.com with your Excel version and platform. If you can share the two files (or anonymised copies), the fix is usually quick.