With the development of Microsoft Office technology, quite a few different features have appeared. Today you can work together with your colleague on the same document at the same time. In this case, it can be useful for you to see the history of changes in Microsoft Excel.

Of course, it can also be useful for users who work on a document on their own. You may need it to bring back an old version of a document or just to see when and who made changes to a spreadsheet.

How to view the change history in the whole Microsoft Excel table

In Microsoft Excel, you can see the complete history of changes in the document. This means that you will have access to all the changes. You will see a list showing all the changes. In order to find this list you need to:

• Open your Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.
• Here, go to the Review tab.
• In the top toolbar, click Show Changes.

You will see a popup menu on the side. Here you can choose to sort, such as show changes to just a single area, to individual pages, or to the entire document. Also, clicking on the desired change will take you to the cell where the change was made. You can see the changes in the Excel web version, the Excel app for Microsoft 365, or the Excel mobile app.

How to view the changes history in one cell

Also, if you are interested in changes to one particular cell, you can see the history of changes to one cell. To do this you need to:

• Select the cell you want.
• Right-click on your cell.
• In the end, click on Show Changes in the pop-up list.

With this feature, you will see all the changes that have been made to that particular cell. You can also see the author of the changes and the text that was edited.

Why some changes don’t show up in the Microsoft Excel change history

In some cases you may notice that some features may not be visible in the changelist. This is usually because the functions you want to view are simply not available for viewing in the “Show Changes” list. There are a few functions that are not visible in the list:

• Chart, shape, and other object edits
• PivotTable operations
• Formatting changes
• Hiding cells or ranges, or filtering
• Deleted location

You should also make sure that all of the contributors use the correct co-authored document. You should also check if your internet connection is stable. If your internet connection is interrupted you may be having problems saving your edits.

You should also be aware that the Changes pane shows only the most recent changes. If you want to see older edits you have made to a file you should go to File > Info > Version History. This tab displays all changes since the beginning of the document creation.

Another reason why you might not see the changes is that another contributor might be using a newer version of Excel than yours.

Read also:

• How to create a bookmark in an Excel
• How to convert a JSON file to Microsoft Excel
• How to add today’s date in Microsoft Excel

How to clear the history of changes in Microsoft Excel

Also, if you don’t want anyone to have access to the history of your document, you have the ability to delete it. Remember that after deleting you can’t get back information about changes in your document. So not only your changes will be deleted, but also the changes of all the other contributors. To do this:

• Click on File in the toolbar at the top.

• Then select the Info tab.
• Select the Reset Changes Pane option.

• At the end, simply confirm your decision with the Reset Log button.

As you understand you need to have the rights of a document editor to do this. Other authors will no longer be able to see the browsing history after you have deleted all the logs. You should keep this in mind if you are working on the document with your colleagues.