Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Creating New Windows.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 20, 2025)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021
If you want to work on two different parts of the same workbook at the same time, there are a couple of different ways you can do so. One way is to open a second window. You do this by simply displaying the View tab of the ribbon and clicking New Window in the Window group. Excel opens a new window. You can then use each window to display and edit different parts of the same workbook.
Notice that each new window you create has not only the workbook name in the title bar, but also a number that indicates the actual window number. Thus, you could have Book1:1 and Book1:2. These are the same way that the window names appear on the Switch Windows drop-down list of the ribbon's View tab and on the Task bar.
Each window created in this way just provides a different way to look at the exact same workbook. This means that any change you make in one window is automatically and immediately made in the other window as well.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (6175) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Creating New Windows.
Best-Selling VBA Tutorial for Beginners Take your Excel knowledge to the next level. With a little background in VBA programming, you can go well beyond basic spreadsheets and functions. Use macros to reduce errors, save time, and integrate with other Microsoft applications. Fully updated for the latest version of Office 365. Check out Microsoft 365 Excel VBA Programming For Dummies today!
It can be frustrating if you expect to use some of Excel's tools normally available on the ribbon, but those tools are ...
Discover MoreIf you are sharing a workbook with users who aren't using the same version of Excel that you use, there could be some ...
Discover MoreSynchronous scrolling of different windows can be very helpful with some worksheets. Excel allows you to synchronize the ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2025-05-20 13:15:43
Dave
I still don't like that the second, third, ... windows don't use your gridline settings (show/don't show), nor frozen rows and columns. There are probably other issues, too.
That means I have to make sure that the file copy I save is from the original window, and not a new window. Otherwise, I have to recreate the lost settings.
2025-05-20 05:09:57
jamies
As described in the posts by Michsael, and J Wooley
There is also the live link to a "picture" of a range from any sheet
set the transparancy as appropriate -
so you can overlay the first row of a worksheet with totals of those columns that are calculated in another worksheet -
A way of seeing data that could be causing iteration and self-referencing annoyances
And don't forger the functions such as sumproduct() that can give access to other workbooks without actually having the Excel app update things like now() references
And - for more "sophistication, maybe use address, and offset -and/or names with offset, and count() to set their start and end cells
so you can set a book&sheet reference into a single cell for pointing to a range of cells of data.
2025-05-20 05:03:51
Neil
Be careful using this - it has an incredibly annoying effect of removing window pane settings on all sheets. I have had experience where I have sent a person a spreadsheet - they use the new windows option, make a change and then save. Get back a spreadsheet with all the panes removed - on a 50+ sheet workbook this is a real pain to fix. MS don't regard this as a bug.
2021-05-25 10:35:01
J. Woolley
@Michael
I don't believe Camera is part of the standard Insert ribbon. Perhaps it is under the Insert menu in older versions of Excel. See https://excelribbon.tips.net/T008189_Multiple_Print_Areas_on_a_Single_Printed_Page.html
For an equivalent to the Camera tool, select a region of the active sheet and pick Home > Copy (Ctrl+C), then select another cell and pick Home > Paste > Linked Picture (I). This provides a dynamic image of the original region.
You might also be interested in the freely available DynamicImage macro in My Excel Toolbox. See https://sites.google.com/view/MyExcelToolbox/
2021-05-24 12:25:19
Michael
If you want to watch a section of another area in the workbook, you can select the area you want to watch, click Insert>Camera then click where you want the watch window.
Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here:
Comments