i'll not propose to be able to answer your question, but only to inquire.
do you mean to compare the 'content' (e.g. the cell visible contents) or the entire details, including any conditional formats to the cells, and other atributes (boraders, shading, value format (such as currency, accounting. etc) - go on to check macros, procedures and declarations?
Are the spreadsheets "standalone" or do either (or both) reference other data stores?
The answer could give potential responders a better guide to providing your answer.
The first situation is just a lot of detailed effort. Like the two spreadsheets to an Access db (Files -> get external data) and write some code. perhaps a 'quick and dirty' would be to find one of the several/many CRC procedures and apply it to all of the fields of all of the records in each data set and then simply compare the values. If they are the same, the files (at least the data parts) are the same. unfortunatly, if the comparision reveals and difference, you only know that there is a difference, and would need to then write the other routine -which would compare each field in each record between the two recordsets, flagging / reporting each item which is different. If the two are NEARLY the same it could return a modest list. but even 'small' differences could produce a large volumn of mis-matches. some preperation of the spreadsheets could be useful, such as making sure that coulmns were arranged identically, all text in the same "Case" (upper or lower); etc, one "preperatoion" I am SURE I would want to include would be to delete all cells which include or are the targes of any calculation. These would generally be redone in MS Access and even trivial differences in the calculation would usually result in a mis-match.
Altogether, I would like to avoid the exercise, as I generally find excel users to have little concept of the level of discipline usual in database operations, allowing casual changes to creep into the systems, and thus destroying their compatability.
MichaelRed
