How to show trace dependents or precedents arrow in Excel?

• Trace Dependents Excel 2013
• Trace Precedents And Dependents In Excel 2013
• Trace Precedents In Excel 2013 Excel
• How To Use Trace Precedents In Excel 2013
• Excel Trace All Precedents

If Excel beeps when you click Trace Dependents or Trace Precedents, Excel has either traced all levels of the formula, or you are attempting to trace an item that is untraceable. The following items on worksheets that can be referenced by formulas are not traceable using the auditing tools. The Trace Precedents button on the toolbar is used for identification of cells being used for a formula. When you click on a cell and then on the Trace Precedents option a blue line will appear that will indicate what cells are used in the formula in the highlighted cell through the use of line arrows. Trace Precedents and Trace Dependents. The Trace Precedents and Trace Dependents options use arrows to show how an individual cell links to other cells, or is linked to from other cells. Things are relatively straightforward when all the related cells are on the same worksheet. Excel will draw arrows from the active cell to the related cell or cells.

In some cases, if there are many formulas in your sheet, you may want to clearly see the relationships among the cells in Excel. To show the trace dependents or precedents arrow will be a good way.

Show all trace dependents (precedents) arrow with Kutools for Excel

Show trace dependents (precedents) arrow

Identifying other cells a formula relies on by way of the Trace Precedents feature. Leveraging Excel’s color-coding to detect cells related to a formula, especially in Excel 2013 and later. Making copies of formulas safely to provide you with a fallback position. Shortening worksheet names, even temporarily, to make formulas easier to comprehend. Trace precedents to determine which cells impact a specific cell. Trace dependents to determine which cells are impacted by a specific cell. Remove precedent and dependent arrows. Check for errors frequently found in formulas. Module 3: Data Tools. Data Tools in Microsoft Excel are simply tools which make it easy to manipulate data.

It is easy to show the trace arrows in Excel.

There are two trace arrow types, one is Trace Precedents arrow, and the other is Trace Dependents arrow.

To show Trace Precedents arrow:

Select cell you need and click Formulas > Trace Precedents.

To show Trace Dependents arrow:

Select cell you need and click Formulas > Trace Dependents.

Tip: You can only add a trace arrow at each time.

Show all trace dependents (precedents) arrow with Kutools for Excel

With Excel built-in function, you only can show one type of trace arrows once time, but with Kutools for Excel's Monitor of Dependents and Precedents, you can show all precedents or dependents or booth precedents and dependents in a range once time.

After installing Kutools for Excel, please do as below:(Free Download Kutools for Excel Now!)

1. Click Kutools > More (in the Formula gourp), and then enable one operation you need in the sub menu, See screenshot:

2. Then select a cell or a range that you want to show the trace arrows, and now the type of trace arrow you select are shown in the selection.

Note: Click Kutools > More > Monitor Precedents of Ranges/Monitor Dependents of Ranges/Monitoer Precedents and Dependents again to disable it.

Tip. If you want to have a free trial of Kutools for Excel's multiple functions, please go to free download Kutools for Excel first, and then go to apply the operation according above steps.

Show All Formula Traces (Dependents and Precedents)

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Trace Dependents Excel 2013

Trace Precedents And Dependents In Excel 2013

The power of Excel comes from the ability to do complicated calculations using formulas and functions. Sometimes, though, there are errors in formulas that give an error message or return the wrong value. In those instances, Excel also provides tools to resolve errors and check your work. One such tool is trace precedents.

The trace precedents tool finds any and all cells that provide information for the target cell. For example, if you summed up the totals in A1 and B1 into cell C1, both cells A1 and B1 would be precedents for C1.

Trace Precedents In Excel 2013 Excel

Some errors in Excel are related to one or more precedent cells giving information that throws off the formula. Trace precedents is a great way to determine if there is a cell causing the issue, and if so, which cell needs to be corrected

For an example of using trace precedents to resolve formula errors, we will use the following spreadsheet:

In this instance, the table is using a simple formula to create revenue projections. The previous year’s quarterly total is increased by the projected growth of 5%. As you can see though, the Q3 project, cell I5, is showing an error message.

So, we will use the trace precedents tool to see if there are any cells causing the issue:

In the demo above, the error was created because one of the cells was incorrect. Instead of the cell containing the percentage amount (5% in cell F4) it was trying to pull the definition of that number one cell above (F3).

The issue could have been caused by simple human error. The person entering the formulas could have simply clicked on the wrong cell.

Once the wrong cell was identified using trace precedents, it was a simple matter of editing the formula to the correct cell and the error was resolved.

There are many instances where this tool could come in handy. Aside from resolving errors, sometimes you might just want to see which cells feed into a formula.

Stay tuned for part 2 next week on Trace Dependents!

We here at Learn Excel Now hope you now feel confident using the trace precedents tool to resolve formula issues.

How To Use Trace Precedents In Excel 2013

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Excel Trace All Precedents

Kevin – Learn Excel Now