Is there a way to trace changes made to a spreadsheet?

[Guest]

We have been using Excel to hold our customer database. No one protected the
or froze the document cells. A few weeks ago, someone sorted the information
without highlighting the whole document, so now the names/addresses/phone
numbers don't match up.
Is there a way for us to see all the changes that have been made to the
document over a long period of time, and then go back to the fateful sorting
and undo it??
Otherwise, the document is worthless to us.
Help!

 

[Gord Dibben]

If you have saved with the messed up sort and don't have a backup then you are
out of luck.

Excel will not keep track of what you have done.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[Wondering]

A file as important as your customers should be backed up (copied)
regularly. Some people backup their important files daily at the end of the
business day. Name the backup file with the name of your customer file
combined with the date of backup, e.g. "Customers Copy 9/29/2007". You might
also want to protect your workbook so that changes can be made only by
authorized people who know what they are doing.

Dave

 

[Earl Kiosterud]

Wondering,

This is certainly good advice, and many don't back up their stuff, then weep when there's a
loss. In a case like this, though, if the sorting error isn't discovered quickly, the
backups get overlaid with the damaged one, unless backups are archived, or rotated for a
very long time.

I think Excel should do more to warn about a possible "Sort of Disaster," and recent
versions do, somewhat. But they're not reliable, and it's still possible for the
uninitiated to accidentally do the bad sort.
--
Regards from Virginia Beach,

Earl Kiosterud
www.smokeylake.com

Note: Top-posting has been the norm here.
Some folks prefer bottom-posting.
But if you bottom-post to a reply that's
already top-posted, the thread gets messy.
When in Rome...
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[Wondering]

Correction to file name. The name should be "Customers Copy 9-29-2007" as
"/" is illegal in a file name.

 

[David McRitchie]

Ctrl+A no longer selects all the cells, so even if someone is careful
enough to stay away from single cell selection and remember to use
Ctrl+A, it is no longer good enough. Consider it to be assured destruction.

For Excel 2003 you have to use Ctrl+A twice to select all cells
For Excel 2007 you have to use Ctrl+A three times to select all cells

You can use Ctrl+A more than the required number and it will still
act as if you did it the required number of times.

If you use a macro solution to circumvent the problem, you are in the same
predicament if macros are turned off for any reason, so I decided
not to install the macro.
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/shortx2k.htm#foobar