Formula View

Location on ribbon: Tab DVD Addin → Group Formula → Menu Trace

Command ID: btnFormulaViewer

What it does

The command opens the Formula trace window and breaks the active cell's formula into clickable pieces: every reference and every argument becomes its own button. Click a piece and you immediately see which range it points at and what it evaluates to, instead of squinting at a long =SUMIFS('L5 quantities'!$H$5:$H$400,...) in the formula bar.

Use it when checking someone else's quantity or payment sheet, or when a total returns an odd number and you cannot tell which range it is really adding up.

How to use

1. Select a cell that contains a formula.
2. Click DVD Addin → Formula → Trace → Formula View. The Formula trace window opens on the Formula View tab with that cell's formula loaded.
3. Click any token in the upper panel — the box below shows its value and details, and the list underneath shows the related cells.
4. Formula cell jumps the cursor back to the cell being analysed; Selected cell reloads the formula of whatever cell you just picked on the sheet.
5. Tick Dependent cells to include dependents in the list; tick History to open the list of cells you have inspected and click an entry to return to it.
6. The window is modeless — leave it open, select another cell and press Selected cell to continue. Switch to the Dependents tab to track the active cell live.

Example

Cell H250 of a summary sheet returns 0 although the detail sheet clearly has quantities. Select H250 and click Formula View — the window splits the =SUMIFS(...) into tokens. Clicking the criteria-range token shows it points at 'L4 quantities'!$C$5:$C$400 while the work codes being matched belong to the level 5 sheet. The bug is right there, with no manual formula reading.

Notes

• If the active cell holds no formula, the info box reports "The selected cell does not contain a formula".
• The window is for inspection and tracing only — formulas cannot be edited here; edit them in Excel's formula bar.
• A single instance is reused: clicking the command again brings the open window to the front rather than opening a second one.
• The Dependents tab only refreshes while that tab is the visible one; on the Formula View tab the list stays on the token you clicked.
• For array formulas or references to a closed workbook, some tokens may not be able to show a value.

Related

• Dependents — opens the live dependent-tracking tab directly.
• Explain formula — have the AI describe the formula in plain language.
• Formula error checking — scan the whole sheet for broken formulas instead of one cell.
• Lock cell references — pin $ references once the formula checks out.