If you’re working on a large Word document or Excel sheet, it can be useful to see two parts or views of the file simultaneously, saving you from having to scroll back and forth or constantly flick between two or more tabs. The New Window tool lets you do just this. Here’s how to use it.
I’m going to use Microsoft Word to show you how to use this tool, but you can follow the same steps in Excel to achieve the same outcome.
Open the “View” tab on the ribbon, and click “New Window.”
As soon as you click that icon, an exact duplicate of your document opens in a new window.
This is particularly handy if you’re working on more than one screen or using an ultrawide monitor, as you can have one view on one side and another view on the other. Having two identical copies of your file on either half of your display can be better than jumping between Excel worksheet tabs or scrolling up and down a long Word document.
In this example, I’ve highlighted some text in yellow and added some red text to the left-hand version. As soon as I made those changes, they were applied in real time to the right-hand version.
In fact, any changes you make to any version you have opened (not necessarily the original) will automatically apply to all other new windows displaying this file, even if you haven’t yet saved the file.
Want to duplicate the window again? No problem! Simply follow the same step (View > New Window) in any of the versions of the file you have opened to create as many copies as you need.
Just be mindful of opening too many copies of the same file if it’s a lengthy Word document containing lots of formatting and tables or an Excel sheet containing lots of complex formulas and volatile functions. Respect the limitations of your computer’s memory, and consider ways to speed up your Word document or Excel workbook.
To make life even easier, when you’ve finished using the New Window tool, you can close the duplicated versions in any order. For example, if you have two copies open, you can close either version, and the one you leave open becomes the primary file. You can then save and close that file to retain all the changes you made in the new windows.
As its name suggests, New Window opens a completely separate window displaying the same file. However, if you want to divide the current window into two panes, click View > Split instead. This may be a better option if you have a single-screen setup.
