Highlight Changes Made to a Sheet

To quickly identify and review the changes that have been made to a sheet, use Highlight Changes.

Turn Highlight Changes on or off

1. Open the sheet and click Highlight Changes  on  the toolbar.
   
   The Highlight Changes window appears.
   
   

2. Click the slider to turn Highlight Changes to ON.

3. Under Highlight changes in the last, select the desired time interval.
   
   Note that when you enable the I last viewed the sheet option, you'll see highlighted changes since you last viewed the sheet—anyone else who views the sheet will see changes since they last viewed the sheet.

4. Click Background Color  to set the highlight color.
   
   The cell background will change to the color that you have set once changes have been detected.

5. Click the X in the upper-right corner of the window to close it and save your settings.

Who sees the highlighting

If you turn Highlight Changes on or off and save the sheet, you turn it on or off for everyone shared to the sheet.

If someone has added a comment, or added or edited attachments in the specified time period, the icon in that row will be highlighted.  (Note that changes to the comments themselves will NOT be highlighted.)

To review details about the change, including the time the change was made and the email address of the person who made it, right-click on the cell and select View Cell History.

You can also set up Notifications to receive email alerts when changes are made to a sheet. For more information, see the Notifications article.

Highlight changes settings

Highlight Changes has eight settings. The settings refresh down to the minute when accessing a sheet. The below table outlines what changes will be highlighted when viewed on 12/12/20 at 6:00 PM.