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

Author: Siluvia Last Modified: 2020-11-06

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:

doc show arrows 1

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

doc show arrows 1

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:

doc show arrows 1

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.

Before applying Kutools for Excel, please download and install it firstly.

1. Please enable the Trace Precedents and Dependents utility by clicking 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.

doc show arrows 1

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. 

  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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