Awful - Cannot recommend this

Pros: I downloaded the trial version of several Excel comparison tools. This one had by far the best trial version. The interface is simple, you don't have to be in Excel to use it (more on that in the Bad however), and the output report is well laid out, easy to navigate, and intuitive.

Cons: -- Comparison takes way too long. I was comparing two spreadsheets - each with 1500 rows and 7 columns - and the report took over 15 minutes!

-- Returning to the plus that you don't have to be in Excel to use the tool... The report that is returned makes it very easy to identify where the differences are. However, if you want to open the underlying spreadsheet to make the change - you can't! The report opens (hidden) both spreadsheets! So, if you want to make the change you have to actually write down what cell is different, close the report, then open the spreadsheet to make the change! And wait - it gets worse!

-- "Did he just say 'write it down'?" Yes! There is no way to print your output! So you've waited 15 minutes and there's no way to print.... Wait, it gets worse.

-- Not only can you not print the report, but also there is no way to save it! So you have to close the report to make any changes, but then if you want to see the results again - guess what? you're waiting another 15 minutes (in my case) until it finishes again. So, before you close it you better be sure to write down *every* difference - in my case there were 107 differences - what a pain to have to write down every cell that's different...

-- Trial version says it will work on spreadsheets up to 30 rows and 10 columns. In fact, it only works on spreadsheets up to 10 rows (I didn't test how many columns). The good news is the tool runs *really fast* if you only have 10 rows...

And one option that would have been nice:

-- Because most of my comparisons were financial in nature I only cared that the values matched to the .001 place. However, there's no option to set and numbers that were off by the .000000000001 place were matching up as unmatched. It would have been nice if there was an option for this.

If this tool was Freeware I would have given it a decent review - but one expects a LOT more functionality and thought put into the design when shelling out $60.

Posted: 04-Dec-2007 12:17:00 PM