by Last week we explored a few techniques to convert Excel spreadsheets to HTML. But nowadays when everyone seems to be moving to the cloud, why not we? The new technologies of sharing Excel data online are a way simpler and provide a handful of new opportunities that you can benefit from.
With the emergence of Excel Online, you no longer need cumbrous HTML code to export your tables to the web. Just save your workbook online and access it literally from anywhere, share with other users and work on the same sheet all together. With Excel Online you can also easily embed your worksheet on a web site or blog and let your visitors interact with it to find just the information they are looking for.
Further on in this article, we are going to investigate all these and many other capabilities provided by Excel Online.
How to move Excel spreadsheets online
If you are new to the cloud in general, and Excel Online in particular, the easiest way to start is sharing your existing workbook using the familiar interface of Excel desktop.
All Excel Online spreadsheets are stored on OneDrive web service (formerly, SkyDrive). As you probably know, this online storage has been around for a while, but now it is integrated in Microsoft Excel as an interface option accessible in a click. In addition, your invitees, i.e. other user users that you are sharing your spreadsheets with, no longer need a Microsoft account to view and edit the Excel files you've shared.
If you don't have a OneDrive account yet, you can sign up now. This service is easy, free and definitely worth your attention because most Office 2013 and 2016 applications, not just Excel, support OneDrive. Once you are signed in, proceed with the following steps.
1. Sign into your Microsoft account
Make sure your are also signed into your Microsoft account from within Excel. On your Excel workbook, look at the top right-hand corner. If you see your name and a photo there, you can skip this step, otherwise click the Sign in link.
Excel will display a message asking to confirm that you really want to allow Office to connect to the Internet. Click Yes, and then enter your Windows Live credentials.
2. Save your Excel spreadsheet to cloud
Verify that you have the right workbook open, i.e. the one you want to share online, just to be on the safe side. In this example, I will be sharing a Holiday Gift List so that my family members and friends can view it and contribute : )
With the correct workbook open, navigate to the File tab, click Share in the left pane. The Invite People option will be selected by default and you click Save To Cloud in the right pane.
After that choose a cloud location to save your Excel file. OneDrive is the first option you will see on the right selected by default, and you simply choose the destination folder in the left pane.
Note: If you don't see the OneDrive option, then either you don't have a OneDrive account or you are not sighed in.
I've already created a special Gift Planner folder and it shows up in the Recent Folders list. You can choose any other folder by clicking the Browse button underneath the Recent Folders list or create a new one in the usual manner by right clicking anywhere within the right part of the Save As dialog window and selecting New > Folder from the context menu. With the proper folder selected, click the Save button.
3. Share the spreadsheet you saved online
Your Excel workbook is already online and you can view it on your OneDrive>. If you wish to share the online spreadsheet with other people, one more step is left for you to do - choose one of the following sharing options:
- Invite People (default). Just enter the email addresses of the contact(s) you want to share your Excel worksheet with. As you type, Excel's AutoComplete will compare your input with the names and addresses in your Address Book and display all matches. To add several contacts, separate the names with a semi-colon. Or, click the Search Address Book icon
to search for contacts in your Global Address list.
You can set viewing or editing permissions for the contacts by choosing the corresponding option from the drop down list on the right. If you are adding several invitees, the permissions will apply to all, but you will be able to change the permissions for each particular person later.
You can also include a personal message to the invitation. If you do not enter anything, Excel will add a generic invitation for you.
Lastly, you choose whether a user is required to sign-in into their Windows Live account before they can access your online spreadsheet. I don't see any particular reason why they should, but it's up to you.
When done, click the Share button. Each of the invited contacts will receive an email message containing a link to the file you shared. They simply click the link to open your Excel spreadsheet online, on OneDrive.
Upon clicking the Share button, Excel will display the list of contacts you have shared the file with. If you want to remove someone from the list or edit the permissions, right click the name and choose the corresponding option from the context menu.
- Sharing Link. If you want to share your online Excel sheet with many people, a faster way would be sending them a link to the file, e.g. using an Outlook distribution or mailing list. You choose the Get a Sharing Link option in the left pane and grab either a View Link or Edit Link or both in the right pane.
- Post to Social Networks. This option's name is self-explanatory and hardly requires any explanations, maybe just one remark. If you have chosen this sharing option but do not see the list of social networks in the right pane, click the Connect social networks link and you will be able to choose your Facebook, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn and other accounts.
- Email. If you prefer to send your Excel workbook as attachment (a usual Excel file, PDF or XPS) as well as internet fax, choose Email on the left and the appropriate option on the right.
Tip: If you want to limit the areas of your Excel workbook that other users can view, switch to the File > Info and click Browser View Options. You will be able to choose the sheets and named items you want to display on the Web.
That's all! Your Excel workbook is online and shared with other users of your choosing. And even if you are not collaborating with anybody, this is an easy way to access your Excel files virtually from anywhere, no matter whether you are at the office, work from home or travel.
How to create web-based spreadsheets in Excel Online
To create a new workbook, click a little arrow next to Create and choose Excel workbook from the drop-down list.
To rename your online workbook, click the default file name and type a new one.
To upload your existing workbook to Excel Online, click on the Upload button on the OneDrive toolbar and browse for the file on your computer.
How to edit workbooks in Excel Online
Once you have the workbook open on Excel Online, you can work with it using Excel Web App almost in the same way you use Excel desktop: enter data, sort and filter, calculate with formulas and present your data visually with charts.
There is only one significant difference between web-based Excel spreadsheets and desktop. Excel Online does not have the Save button because it saves your workbooks automatically. If you've changed your mind about something, press Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y to undo or redo, respectively. You can use the Undo / Redo buttons on the Home Tab > Undo group for the same purpose.
If you are trying to edit some data but nothing happens, most likely you are in read-only view. To switch to editing mode, click Edit Workbook > Edit in Excel Web App and make quick changes directly in your web browser.
For more advanced data analysis features such as pivot tables, sparklines or connecting to an external data source, click Edit in Excel to switch to the desktop version.
When you save the spreadsheet in your Excel, it will be saved where you originally created it, i.e. in your OneDrive.
Tip: If you want to make quick changes in several workbooks, the fastest way is to open the list of files on your OneDrive, find the workbook you want, right click it and select the needed action from the context menu.
How to share Excel Online spreadsheets with other users
To share your web based Excel spreadsheet, click Share > Share with People and then choose either:
- Invite People and type the email addresses of people you want to share the workbook with, or
- Get a link to paste it to an email message, web-page or social media sites.
You can also choose whether you want to give viewing or editing permissions to your contacts.
When several people are editing the worksheet at the same time, Excel Online shows their presence and the updates straight away, provided that everyone is editing in Excel Online, not in Excel desktop. When you click a little arrow next to the person's name in the top right-hand corner of your spreadsheet, you can even see which exactly cell is being edited at the moment.
How to lock certain cells for editing in a shared worksheet
If you are sharing your online sheets with a number of people, you may want to limit the editing rights for your team members only to certain cells, rows or columns in your Excel document on OneDrive. To do this, you need to choose the range(s) that you allow to edit in your desktop Excel and then protect the worksheet.
- Select the range of cells that your users can edit, go to the Review tab and click "Allow Users to Edit Ranges" in the Changes group.
- In the Allow Users to Edit Ranges dialog, click the New... button, verify that the range is correct and click Protect Sheet. If you want to allow your users to edit several ranges, click the New... button again.
- Enter the password twice and upload the protected sheet to OneDrive.
If you are using the desktop version of Excel, these instructions may come in handy: How to lock or unlock specific areas in worksheet.
Embed online spreadsheet onto a website or blog
If you want to publish your Excel workbook on a web-site or blog, perform these 3 quick steps in the Excel web app:
- With the workbook open in Excel Online, click Share > Embed, and then click the Generate button.
- In the next step, you decide how exactly you want your spreadsheet to appear on the web. The following customization options are available to you:
- What to show section. It lets you embed the entire workbook or its part such as a range of cells, pivot table etc.
- Appearance. In this section, you can customize the appearance of your workbook (show and hide grid lines and column headers, include a download link).
- Interaction. Allow or disallow users to interact with your spreadsheet - sort, filter and type into cells. If you allow typing, the changes that other people make in the cells on the web will not be saved in the original workbook. If you want to a certain cell to be selected when the web page opens, select the "Always start with this cell selected" check box, and then click the cell you want in the preview that is displayed the right part of the window.
- Dimensions. Type a width and height for the spreadsheet viewer, in pixels. To see how the viewer will look with the sizes you've defined, click the "View actual size" link at the top of the preview. Just keep in mind that you can specify a minimum of 200 x 100 pixels and a maximum of 640 x 655 pixels. If you want to use other dimensions outside these limits, you will be able to modify the code later using any HTML editor or directly on your web-site or blog.
- All that is left for you to do is click the Copy link underneath the Embed code section and paste the HTML code (or JavaScript markup) onto your blog or a web-site.
Note: The embed code is an iframe, so make sure your web-site supports iframes and blog editor allows iframes in posts.
Embedded Excel Web App
What you see below is an interactive Excel spreadsheet that illustrates the technique in action. This "Days Until Next Birthday" app calculates how many days are left until your next birthday, anniversary or other event and shades the gaps in different tints of green, yellow and red. In the Excel Web App, just enter your events in the first column and try changing the corresponding dates to experiment with the results.
If you are curious to know the formula, please check out this article - How to conditionally format dates in Excel.
Excel Web App mashups
If you want to get more interactions between your web-based Excel spreadsheets and other web apps or services, you can use the JavaScript API available on OneDrive to create interactive data mashups.
Below you can see the Destination Explorer mashup created by our Excel Web App team as an example of what web developers can do for your website or blog. This mashup uses the APIs of Excel Services JavaScript and Bing Maps and its purpose is to help the web-site visitors choose a destination where they want to travel. You can choose a location and the mashup will show you the local weather or the number of tourists that visit the area. The screenshot below shows our location :)
As you see, working in Excel Online is simple. Now that you know the basics, you can explore the other features and manage your online spreadsheets with ease and confidence!
159 comments
I have 10 people sharing excel sheet, when it opens with one of us it is ready only for others that's fine. If same time anyone will open then he is not getting pop up name who is working on that. Can I hav suggestion for this?
Hi Dhan,
Do you share your spreadsheet in Excel Online or a usual spreadsheet in desktop Excel? If the latter, the following article by Microsoft may be helpful:
https://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/use-a-shared-workbook-to-collaborate-HP010096833.aspx
Svetlana,
The embedding functionality is great, but is it possible to do this without sharing the file with the whole world? I want users of my site to be able to access the content and no one else. Is there a way to both lock down the file to limit access, and ensure unauthorized users can't view the content if they somehow got their hands on the embedded src url?
Thanks,
Mike
Hello Mike,
When sharing your spreadsheet you can add emails of authorized users and choose either view or edit rights for them. You can also select the option "Require users to sign in before accessing the document". In this case, only your authorized users logged into their Windows Live accounts will be able to access the document and no one else. These options are demonstrated in the screenshot under Step 3. Share the spreadsheet you saved online.
However, this approach is hardly acceptable if you want to let all visitors of your web-site to view your spreadsheet. In this case, you can publish (embed) the spreadsheet in some restricted area of your web-site that only registered users can access.
Hi, I have done this where i have embedded an online calculator within a restricted sign in section of my website. However, the issue i now have is that although the download option has been turned off, there are still 2 other buttons on the bottom right side of the iframe which allow users to "view full-size workbook online" or "view information about this workbook". I'm wanting to know if there is a way to block those options to stop my spread sheet from being stolen? I've tried to reduce the size of the iframe to hide the scroll bars but it doesn't seem to be possible and even though the HTML says scrolling="no" there is still scrolling?? Can anyone help?
This is a really big issue that I'm having too. I'd like to allow people to interact with the contents of the spreadsheet without being able to take all of the content. Ah!!
Hi, same problem here.
Could you find a solution?
Thx!
Hi Svetlana,
Is it possible to automatically create a copy of the an Excel Sheet (this is the template) everyday (with a file name that indicates date)in Excel online?
Regards
Prem
Hi Prem,
Sorry, I am not aware of any way to do this automatically, most likely this is not possible.
Hi Desire,
to my project having some doubt bcz how to create an online excel automatically.....i need ur help...
Hi Deepa,
I am not sure I fully understand what you mean by "create an online excel automatically". There are 2 ways to create online worksheets:
1. Move your existing worksheets online, as explained here.
2. Create a workbook online on your OneDrive, as described in this section.
Hi,
What is maximum capacity(in Mbs) can an excel file be loaded and accessed in OnDrive?
Desire
Hi Desire,
To my best knowledge, you can upload a file up to 2 GB onto OneDrive. But Excel Web App allows editing workbooks up to 2 MB only. Please see this page for more info.
Thanks Svetlana,
the last one, Can I share some of spreadsheets to users?
Regards,
Desire
Hi Desire,
Of course, you can share your spreadsheets with other users by clicking Share > Share with People in Excel Online. Please see the following section for the detailed guidance with screenshots - How to share Excel Online spreadsheets with other users.
Hi,
I am very excited by this excel online solution,one more question.
How to prevent my website( containing embedded excel) to be hacked?
Regards,
Desire
Hi Desire,
The embedded code has practically no impact on the security of your web-site. The Excel Web App is loaded on the client's side, your web-site just indicates which spreadsheet should be taken and how it shall be loaded.
Thanks Svetlana,
Can you also help on this:
Is there a way of linking 3 files in cloud?
1. one is INPUT file which will be always replaced (overwritten) daily or weekly.
2. the second one is the master file (the ENGINE File containing formulas)and highly protected( only Admin can have access to the file)
3. The 3rd is the OUTPUT file linked to Engine file, which will be downloaded regularly.
Kindly let me know if it is possible and how to do about it.
Regards,
Desire
Desire,
I have tried to answer these questions, to the best of my knowledge, in comment 13 above.
Hi ,
Is there a way of linking 3 files in cloud?
1. one is INPUT file which will be always replaced (overwritten) daily or weekly.
2. the second one is the master file (the ENGINE File containing formulas)and highly protected( only Admin can have access to the file)
3. The 3rd is the OUTPUT file linked to Engine file, which will be downloaded regularly.
Kindly let me know if it is possible and how to do about it.
Regards,
Desire
Hi Desire,
Unfortunately, your scheme will hardly work in the way you want. For the formulas to get recalculated, the master file with formulas should always be open with someone and continuously updated. Additionally, I am not sure Excel Online can handle updating data between spreadsheets in the right way, though we have never tested this, so I cannot state with certainty. You can probably consider a solution based on some data base (data + business logic + reports).
When I copy and paste multi lined data into an online spreadsheet it is all inserted into one cell. The behaviour I'm expecting is that each line should be pasted in a separate row. This is how Outlook Excel performs this action. Is there a way to change this behaviour for Online Excel?
Hello Rick,
I believe this behavior is by design in Online Excel, at least I do not know any way to change this. You can try reaching the Microsoft Support Team to know with certainty.
Hi Svetlana, Is it possible to limit edit access for a team member to be able to edit only cetain columns in an excel document on OneDrive?
Thanks,
Natalie
Hello Natalie,
This is a very good question! Of course, you can allow your team members to edit certain columns and lock others. I've added the instructions to the article, please check out the section How to lock certain cells for editing.
Thanks Svetlana for writing such an insightful article. I agree with you that everyone is moving towards using cloud technology to develop applications. I would like to mention an application here that allow users to create not only MS office documents without having to install MS Office but other documents also like PDF etc in a cloud known as Aspose Cloud API. I am using their free trial right now and code samples to test my application and so far its going as expected. You should also try this API.
http://www.aspose.com/cloud/total-api.aspx
Thanks is much!
Svetlana,
I'm looking for a website developer to set up a new website for my business that takes an Excel file I created and imbeds it as an interactive spreadsheet for the public to use. The user will have 10 cells in the spreadsheet that can be changed to a different number, then hit a "sort" button that shows an updated ranking based on the user's inputs. The developers I've spoken with do not know how to imbed interactive spreadsheets, yet I see in various Google searches, that led me to your blog, that it can be done. Any recommendations.?
Thanks,
Ben Hirschenfang
Property Review Program
Hi Ben,
Usually, there is nothing difficult with embedding interactive spreadsheets to a web-site. Please check out the following parts:
- How to move Excel spreadsheets online.
- How to embed the online spreadsheet onto a website. All you need to do is click the Copy link underneath the Embed code section and paste the HTML code (or JavaScript markup) onto your blog or a web-site.
Most importantly, you will need to decide which cells the user can edit in your interactive worksheet and which should be locked for editing. You can find the details on how to do this in this article - Lock cells in a worksheet.
I have been using google drive to publish a spreadsheet to the web and then have my various office excel workbooks update from it through the get external data option. Every time it was changed online by any of the collaborators my various workbooks would update so long as i refreshed. It was working perfectly but unfortunately i am, based in China and google has been throttled so hard that this feature no longer works.. Is it possible to do this from the onedrive through excel online? it seems weird that google drive should be more functional than microsoft's own solution. Or am i missing something?
Hi!
Your spreadsheets will get updated as long as all of your collaborators work online. Let me quote what Microsoft says in this regard: "Everyone works in Excel Online; if someone opens the workbook in the Excel desktop application, the workbook can't be edited in Excel Online until it's closed again in desktop Excel." You can find more details here.
Svetlana,
Thanks a lot for your reply. My collaborators on the online document are working fine. What i was getting at is the "get external data from web" option in desktop excel. The link i generated in excel online doesn't work when i enter it into the box to import external data, it just loads up the excel online start up page but not the doc itself. All the information i have found only talks about embedding on webpages through an html link but nothing about publishing a link with which to import to various independent worksheets through the "export external data" option on excel desktop. Can you tell me how to do this? I hope I am explaining myself properly. Thanks for your time.
Hi Sam,
Got it, thank you for the clarification. The "Get external data from web" option does not work in the way you want in the current version of Excel, maybe in the next Office release... Currently, this is simply a way to grab information from a web-page.
I know only 2 ways to import info from online to desktop and vice versa:
- On OneDrive, right-click a sheet and select "Open in Excel" from the context menu.
- In desktop Excel, click Open > OneDrive.
Svetlana,
Thanks sgain! In fact I'm not looking to open the whole document. all i want to do is grab a table from an online doc. This does work in google drive via the "publish to web" link. The link generated in onedrive "share - get link" does not. I still feel like I'm missing something. it seems like a big oversight because its a very useful function.
Just to further clarify: I'm using my online table as my product database for all of my sales sheets ( about 15 different and remotely operating employees) and the prices are always changing. this way the sales sheets (which have a copy of the database as one of the sheets in the workbook) are always up to date in real time so long as they refresh the data (recopy the table from the online doc) before they make an entry.
Hi Sam,
I fully understand your point. To my best knowledge it is not possible to use Excel's "From web" option to get info from your online spreadsheet : (
Is there any limit on number of users working simultaneously?
Hello Mukesh,
There is no hard limit for the number of users working simultaneously on an Excel spreadsheet online. They call it co-authoring, and according to Microsoft, having up to 30 users at the same time should be fine.
I've been using excel on-line to embed data, works great; however, I've had no luck with embedding the data with slicers. Appears that slicers cannot be used? I've been researching but cannot find a detailed answer.
Hello Eddie,
According to Microsoft, you can view slicers in your online spreadsheets but cannot create or edit slicers in Excel Online. You can find the official description here (Slicer viewing section).
my excel file has many sheets and I only want to share a certain sheet with friend. Can i do it?
Hi Khanh,
Regrettably, Microsoft Excel does not have an option to share only some spreadsheets of a given workbook. The only way is to copy the needed sheet into a new workbook, then save that workbook to OneDrive, and share with your friend.
Does one need a Microsoft/Hotmail/Live account to edit shared Excel Online spreadsheets?
You would be required to log in with your Microsoft account only if the person who shared the spreadsheet selected the option "Require user to sign in before accessing the document". Please see "Step 3. Share the spreadsheet you saved online" for more details.
Thank you. For the information. It was almost the functionality I need.. Your information was most helpfull.
I have a VB macro in my workbook, that does not function in the online version. What am I doing wrong?
Hi Paul,
You are doing everything right. Regrettably, macros do not run in the current version of Excel Online. Hopefully, Microsoft will be able to support them in the online version too at some point in the future.
Hi,
Given that macros are not supported, Is there a way to build the equivalent of a VSTO Application in Excel On Line? I have a non-trivial VSTO application that have evolved from being a pure Macro to a solution that combines both, C# code and a bit of VBA code. The application interacts with SAP and SQL Server. I can replace the VBA code that is still left with its C# equivalent, but now I have also been asked to take this app to the next level and reach a higher audience in our intranet. I'd like to understand if such an app can be written for the online version of Excel. Thanks