Comparison results

The engine and the results window that every Compare command shares. This is the reference for exactly what gets compared, how changes are categorized and ranked by impact, how you triage them in the results window, and the highlights, report sheets, and export files you can produce from a comparison.

What the engine compares

The comparison is formula-aware and read-only. After matching sheets and aligning rows and columns, it walks each cell and classifies every difference. It detects:

DimensionWhat’s detected
ValuesChanged cell values, with the absolute and percentage difference and a financial-significance flag.
FormulasAdded, removed, and modified formulas — compared in both A1 and R1C1 form, and sub-typed as reference / function / constant / operator / structural change.
FormattingFont, color, border, number format, alignment, and conditional formatting changes (when formatting comparison is on).
StructureInserted/deleted rows and columns, row/column count changes, and sheets added or removed. (A renamed sheet appears as added + removed in a whole-workbook compare; pair renamed or cross-named sheets in Compare Sheets.)
Named rangesAdded, removed, or modified defined names.
Data validationAdded, removed, or changed validation rules (type, criteria, input and error messages).
CommentsLegacy cell comments added, removed, or changed. Threaded comments are out of scope.

Smart alignment runs before the cell walk so an inserted or deleted row shifts the rest of the sheet into place instead of reporting every following row as changed. Both workbooks are recalculated once before comparison (unless Skip recalculation is on). What counts as a value change is governed by the numeric tolerance; whitespace and absolute/relative reference handling in formulas are configurable too.

How changes are categorized and ranked

Every difference becomes a typed change record:

  • Impact rating — formula changes are rated None, Low, Medium, High, or Critical, and value changes carry a significant flag. These ratings drive sorting and the highlight colors (High/Critical changes are colored red).
  • Grouped formula changes — when the same formula change (by R1C1 pattern) repeats across many cells — a SUM range extended down a whole column, say — the results collapse it into a single entry that reports “N cells affected” instead of N rows of noise. (Controlled by Group identical changes.)
  • Financial impact — when financial-model analysis is on, changes that touch recognized metrics (IRR, NPV, EBITDA, DSCR…) are flagged with a metric name and a severity, using per-metric sensitivity thresholds. See settings.

The results window

The results window opens after every comparison. It presents the change records grouped by worksheet and type with running counts, lets you filter and sort (impact and type are the useful axes), and shows the before → after for each change — including a side-by-side formula view for formula changes. Selecting a change can take you to the cell in Excel so you can see it in context. From here you also reach highlighting, report generation, the export and save actions, and — for a version comparison — Material Change Intelligence.

Highlighting changes in the grid

From the results window you can paint the changed cells directly onto a workbook so you can walk the model with the diff visible. Colors are assigned by change category:

ColorChange category
GreenValue changes
BlueFormula changes
Orange / yellowFormatting changes
PurpleStructural changes
TealData validation changes
RedCritical / high-impact changes

Highlights apply to one workbook at a time. Before coloring a cell the add-in records its original fill, and a single remove highlights action restores every original color.

Comparison highlights are persistent — revert them before you save

Unlike the Risk Heatmap, comparison highlights are not automatically stripped before save. They are real cell fills, and the original colors are remembered in memory for the session. If you save the workbook while highlights are applied, the colors are written into the file; and because they overwrite cell formatting, applying or removing them clears Excel’s native undo. Use the results window’s remove action to revert — don’t rely on Ctrl+Z.

Reports, export, and save

The results window produces three kinds of artifact, all user-triggered:

  • In-workbook report — adds report sheets to a workbook: a summary sheet named MXP Compare plus one MXP <sheet> detail sheet per changed worksheet, with a side-by-side formula view and hyperlinks from the summary. (This one writes sheets into the target workbook.)
  • Export Comparison Results — writes the results to a new .xlsx file at a location you choose (default name Comparison_Results.xlsx).
  • Save Comparison Results — saves the comparison itself as a .mxcmp file (.mxcmp.json) so it can be re-opened later without re-running the diff (via Compare Saved Results).

(The separate .xlsx/.pdf explanation report is produced by Material Change Intelligence, not from the main results grid.)

Caveats

  • Read-only analysis. The comparison never modifies the source workbooks; only highlighting and the in-workbook report write to a workbook, and both are opt-in.
  • Highlights persist (see the callout) — revert before saving if you don’t want them in the file.
  • Threaded comments aren’t compared — only legacy cell comments.
  • What’s compared depends on settings — formatting, named ranges, data validation, comments, tolerance, and alignment are all configurable; see Comparison settings.
  • Differences, not correctness. Impact ratings rank what moved; they don’t prove a formula is right. Verify with Proof & Trust.

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