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How to show arrows to display the relationship between formulas and cells in Excel?

Author Siluvia Last modified

You may create multiple formulas in a worksheet, and sometimes you need to find the relationship between these formulas and their referenced cells. How to quickly achieve it? You will get two methods in this article.

Show arrows between cells with Trace Precedents and Trace Dependents feature
Mass show arrows between cells with Kutools for Excel

Show arrows between cells with Trace Precedents and Trace Dependents feature

You can use the Trace Precedents and Trace Dependents features to show the relationship between formulas and cells in selection.

1. For finding which cells affect the value of the currently selected cell, please select the formula cell and then click Formulas > Trace Precedents. See screenshot:

click Formulas > Trace Precedents

2. Then the arrow is shown between referenced cells and formula cells.

the arrow is shown between referenced cells and formula cells

Notes:

1. If you want to find which formula cells are affected by the value of the currently selected cell, please click Formulas > Trace Dependents. See screenshot:

click Formulas > Trace Dependents to find which formula cells are affected by the value

2. For tracing precedents or dependents of multiple cells, you need to repeat the above steps until all arrows are displayed.

Mass show arrows between cells with Kutools for Excel

It is time-consuming to show all arrows of multiple cells one by one. If you want to automatically show the arrows between cells, please try the Monitor Precedents and Dependents utility of Kutools for Excel.

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1. Please enable the Trace Precedents and Dependents utility by clicking Kutools > More > Monitor Precedents and Dependents. 

click Kutools > More > Monitor Precedents and Dependents

Then both the trace precedents and the trace dependents are enabled.

When you select a cell or a range, the arrows will be shown immediately if there are relationships between currently selected cells and other cells.

the arrows will be shown if there are relationships between currently selected cells and other cells

Notes:

1. Click the Kutools > More > Trace Precedents and Dependents again to turn off these two utility.
2. If you only want to enable the Trace Precedents or Trace Dependents, please click Kutools > More > Monitor Precedents of Ranges or Monitor Precedents of Ranges. 

only to enable the Trace Precedents or Trace Dependents

  If you want to have a free trial (30-day) of this utility, please click to download it, and then go to apply the operation according above steps.

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