Compare two sheets in a Numbers document

There isn't an easy way native to Numbers as you cannot have two "windows" open on the same document.

On the Mac one workaround is to duplicate your document (File > Duplicate) and have both documents open at the same time so you can put the versions side by side on your display to compare.

You could also export to pdf and have the pdf open at the same time as your original document.

On the iPad the workarounds appear to be more difficult.

If the information is not sensitive you could try uploading the two sheets to an AI and ask it to compare.

SG

Hi Jay,

Comparing tables on 2 different Sheets (Tabs).

Table 1 on Sheet 1

Table 1 on Sheet 2 together with a comparison table.

Formula in A2 is IF(Table 1::A2=Sheet 1::Table 1::A2,Table 1::A2,"Boing")

Fill right and fill down.

Conditional Highlighting will show the cells with Boing.

Regards,

Ian.

There's a subtler way of doing this, depending on what you want to see.

If you want to see a table of differences, then a third table that compares the two is one way to go.

If you want to see two tables, with the differences highlighted, then an extension of that model may work.

Given Table 1 and Table 2, create a third table (Table 3) of the same dimensions.

Set the formula of the first data row in Table 3 to:

=Table1:A=Table2:A

Repeat for each of the columns you want to compare.

Initially this will result in a table of TRUE/FALSE values based on the cells' equivalence:

Now apply formatting to the cells. First, set the main text color to either white, or transparent (as you prefer). Then set a conditional format that changes the color of cells that are FALSE:

Now your Differences table looks like this:

All you need to do now is position this table in the same position on the sheet as one of the other tables, and use the Inspector -> Arrange -> Back to send it behind the real table. This will have the effect of the differences 'poking through':

Since the difference table is behind the data table, you're free to edit the table as you normally would, and the background table's cells will highlight anything that's different.

Note: you can use conditional formatting to highlight differences between individual cells, but this is cumbersome if you want to compare a range (e.g. specific cells, a row, column, or the entire table) since you need to create individual rules per cell. This approach works at a broader level.