Same lines in excel marked as different

[glacius]

There a two .xls files with two columns I need to compare. When I do comparison, some lines are shown in pink, but they don't have any differences. How can I fix it?

[Chris]

If the differences are due to whitespace, it might help to turn on View > Visible Whitespace.

To ignore whitespace differences if that's what is causing the issue:
Click the Rules toolbar button (referee icon).
Double click on a column.
Uncheck Default.
Check Whitespace to make it unimportant.
Click OK until you're back to the main window.
Make sure View > Ignore Unimportant Differences is turned on.

[glacius]

If the differences are due to whitespace, it might help to turn on View > Visible Whitespace.

To ignore whitespace differences if that's what is causing the issue:
Click the Rules toolbar button (referee icon).
Double click on a column.
Uncheck Default.
Check Whitespace to make it unimportant.
Click OK until you're back to the main window.
Make sure View > Ignore Unimportant Differences is turned on.

Thank you for advice! It's worked! Now I see only differences. I have one more question. How can I filter any lines exept differences when line with word or sentence in one file doesn't exist in another file both ways?

[Aaron]

Hello,

Is it only a specific cell that then aligns to an empty cell, or an entire row that only appears on one side and isn't aligned to another row on the other?

For the later, right click the Display Filters toolbar area and switch to Toggles mode. You can then toggle specific criteria to show only Left Different Rows, Aligned Different, Same, etc.

Otherwise, it requires defining unimportance. Would the whole column be able to be marked as Unimportant? If so, the Unimportant differences can then be ignored with the Ignore Unimportant Differences toggle. However, if the cell is aligned to an empty cell, the data within the different cell would also need to be Unimportant in order for the pair to be Unimportant.

[glacius]

I attached a picture to illustrate the idea. I need to compare lines in two ways:
Way 1. To see only differnces in words (violet cells)
Way 2. To see only differences in letter (pink cells)

Sometimes I need to compare in Way 1, another time I need to compare in Way 2

[Aaron]

Hello,

If you right click the Display Filters up top (Show All, Show Differences, Show Same) and switch from Favorites mode to Toggles mode, you can individually toggle only Diffs (red) rows or Left or Right (purple) rows. How does this work for you?