To start tracking changes, open an enrolled spreadsheet. You can do this from:
My Files — click the Open live file icon next to any file
File Versions — click the Open live file button at the top right
OneDrive, SharePoint, or Google Drive — open the file directly from your file system
Open live file options from My Files and File Versions pages
For Excel files, the Rockhopper add-in appears on the right side of the screen. Sign in with your Microsoft account to connect. For Google Sheets, the Rockhopper sidebar activates automatically.
Excel with the Rockhopper add-in sign-in panel
Allow popup dialog and Microsoft account picker
How change tracking works
Once connected, Rockhopper tracks every edit you make — cell value changes, new or deleted worksheets, and sheet renames. Tracking works even if the Rockhopper side panel is closed.
Rockhopper add-in showing "Tracking changes" status
Changes are tracked per-user, so Rockhopper always knows who made each edit.
Uncommitted changes
When changes are made to an enrolled file, Rockhopper flags it as having uncommitted changes — edits that exist in the live file but haven't been saved as a formal version yet.
You can review uncommitted changes before deciding to commit a new version or discard them:
From My Files — click View changes on any file with a change indicator. A red dot means you haven't seen the latest changes yet.
From File Versions — click the View changes button in the status bar.
View changes button on My Files page
View changes button on the File Versions page
The difference analysis view
This is where you review what changed. The screen is split into two areas:
Left side — the spreadsheet. Changed cells are highlighted with a blue border. Use the sheet selector at the bottom to switch between worksheets.
Right side — the context panel. Three tabs give you different views:
Tab
What it shows
Change Log
A structured list of every change — sheet-level events and cell-level edits — organized by worksheet
Comments
The file's comment thread
Reviews
Review requests and their approval status
Unread changes are flagged with a red dot, both on individual items and on sheet tabs that contain unseen edits.
Difference analysis view with change log and highlighted cells
Changes may take a moment to appear if the file is still syncing with Microsoft or Google. Rockhopper updates the change log automatically once processing is complete.
Navigating to a change
Click any item in the Change Log to jump directly to the affected cell in the spreadsheet view.
Changed cell highlighted in the spreadsheet with the corresponding change log entry
Cell edit history
Want to see the full history of a specific cell? Right-click on any changed cell and select View edit history. You'll see a complete record of every edit to that cell — who made each change and on which version.
Cell edit history context menu
Cell edit history panel showing the full change record
