Excel's New Copilot Change History Skill Simplifies Workbook Edits

Tony Phillips, an experienced Microsoft Office user and How-To Geek contributor, recently discovered that Excel's new change history feature has saved him from digging through past edits in his workbooks.

Phillips uses Version History and Show Changes to keep track of changes in a workbook, but these tools can be time-consuming and require manual investigation. The new Copilot change history skill, which is now generally available, provides a more streamlined approach to understanding recent changes.

Copilot allows users to ask Excel questions about the changes made to their workbooks, providing a summary of key edits and who made them. Users can also narrow down the search by specifying a particular period, worksheet, range, or cell. Additionally, Copilot can highlight changes made by different people using different colors.

The change history skill becomes particularly useful when troubleshooting issues, such as broken formulas. Copilot can help trace the changes that led to the problem and restore a previous working formula.