Watching Cell Values

There's a nifty feature added in Excel 2002 (and available in subsequent versions of Excel) that allows you to keep an eye on the value of certain cells. This is really handy in large worksheets. Let's say that you have a large worksheet, and you want to track the results at two or three cells all of the worksheet. Follow these steps if you are using Excel 2002 or Excel 2003:

1. Right-click a cell you want to watch. Excel displays a Context menu.
2. Choose Add Watch from the Context menu.

That's it—Excel displays the Watch Window, showing the cell and information about it (name, value, formula, etc.) If you are using Excel 2007 then you cannot simply right-click a cell to add it to the Watch Window. You must follow these steps:

1. Select the cell (or cells) you want to watch.
2. Display the Formulas tab of the ribbon.
3. Click Watch Window in the Formula Auditing group. Excel displays the Watch Window.
4. Within the Watch Window click Add Watch. Excel displays the Add Watch dialog box, with the addresses of the selected cells already filled in.
5. Click Add. The cells are added to the list of cells in the Watch Window.

You can add additional cells by following either the two steps (Excel 2002 and Excel 2003) for each of them, or else click the Add Watch button in the Watch Window.

If you close the Watch Window, you can later display it again by choosing View | Toolbars | Watch Window (Excel 2002 and Excel 2003) or by clicking Watch Window on the Formulas tab of the ribbon (Excel 2007). You can also delete cells from the Watch Window by selecting the entry and clicking Delete Watch.