Weekly Computer Tip # 283
10 September 2009

Spot the difference (Excel 2007)

Today's tip (a day early rather than a day late ;) is inspired by Sam from Cambridge who asked whether there was a way to spot duplicates in her Excel worksheet. I showed her the new Excel 2007 Remove Duplicates button (on the Data tab, in the Data Tools group) but she didn't want to get rid of the values. She just wanted to see them, which is why we used Excel 2007's improved conditional formatting functionality instead.

Here's how:

1. Select the range of cells you want to check for duplicate values.
2. On the Home tab, in the Styles group, click the arrow next to Conditional Formatting, and then click Highlight Cells Rules.
3. Select Duplicate Values.
4. Click OK.

Once again, thanks for the inspiration, Sam!

.