PerfectXL
Explore
Walkthrough

Drag ‘n Drop

Simply drag & drop an Excel file from anywhere to get started.

Overview

A visualization reveals the workbook structure. Options on the lefthand side allow you to explore elements in your spreadsheet by worksheet or by object type (such as charts, formulas and pivot tables).

Blocks represent worksheets

Special cases, such as globally defined names, VBA modules or external sources, are given their own shapes.

Arrows indicate flow of information

For example, an arrow pointing from sheet A to sheet B could indicate a formula in sheet B is referring to cells in sheet A.

Exploring a spreadsheet model

The visualization shows key relations between worksheets, VBA-code and external dependencies.

Save the visualization

At any time, click here to save the currently shown visualization as PNG, SVG or PDF.

Hidden/Very hidden worksheets

Light grey sheets are hidden, white sheets are very hidden in Excel.

Click on the arrow to jump to the sheet in Excel. This also allows you to unhide the sheets in case they are (very) hidden

Getting up close

Zoom, pan around or click any worksheet in the side panel or in the visualization to focus on that worksheet.

Understanding input & output

What are the input sources? Where are the conclusions? Which sheets are doing the heavy lifting?

Understanding data distribution

Which sheets contains the most cells? And which ones are (almost) empty?

Understanding relations

How does information flow from one place to another? Click any arrow to find out.

Worksheets

A simple yet useful list of worksheets in your spreadsheet.

Cell usage

Is the workbook primarily running calculations, or is it full of data?

Charts

See a collection of all the charts & graphs in your spreadsheet.

Conditional formatting

View a list of all conditional format rules in your spreadsheet.

Data Validation Rules

It can be tricky to find which data validation rules are applied to cells in your workbook. PerfectXL Explore lists them for you.

Defined Names

View a list of all defined names, also known as named ranges.

External links

Is Excel complaining about missing data sources? Easily find where they are referenced under External Sources.

Power Query, databases and more

In addition to cell references to other workbooks, Excel supports all sorts of data connections to external sources, such as databases, files or even entire folders. Often these connections are made with Power Query.

List all formulas

Need a list of all formulas used in a spreadsheet for an audit or for documentation? We’ve got you covered.

Pictures

Although mostly trivial, pictures can actually be important to be aware of. Too many pictures can bloat a model or slow it down, and some pictures can even contain formulas!

Pivot Tables

Curious where spreadsheet data comes together? Worth having a look at Pivot Tables!

Tables

When data regions are formatted as table in Excel, they’ll appear in this list.

Inspecting VBA

What VBA modules are used in your spreadsheet? Which modules are bigger than the others?

Export as Excel

Export all lists to a new Excel file.