Comments on: Move Excel spreadsheets online, share and embed web app in your website

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. Continue reading →

Comments page 3. Total comments: 159

  1. Hi,
    Please tell me How overcome with this error..The server couldn't complete this action. Error Code: 0x88ffc009

  2. Can we get an alert if same cell is being edited by multiple users

    Thanks

  3. Is there a way to toggle the spreadsheet visibility? For example, I may need to make edits/changes to the spreadsheet without the group previously provided access seeing the changes as they are being made real-time. Is there a way to easily turn off/suspend access to the spreadsheet and then turn it back on when the changes are complete?

    Thanks

  4. Hello
    I have a small problem with Excel Online:
    I created an Excel document and I shared it.
    When someone edit my document with excel online all is well.
    But when when someone edit with Excel it's locked.
    I have the following message:

    Unfortunately, the workbook needs to be closed or checked in before you can edit it. If everyone uses Excel Online, you can work on it at the same time.

    Is there a way to authorize the edition only on Excel online?

    Than you

  5. I recently embedded an interactive excel file on my blog. I noticed that my keyboard won't come up when I try to interact with the embedded file looking at the blog on my phone. Is there any way to make it so it can be interactive on your mobile device?

  6. please I developed an application using VBA excel.. u want the app to run online. such that the user forms will still appear with its controls. how do I do this

  7. Svetlana, We have several entities who work in remote and submit their data in individual Excel sheets through email which we to again have to copy paste and enter into our Excel database for consolidation and getting the total database. Can online Excel help in allowing all the entities enter into web-based form from their respective ends and we get the consolidated data from our end without coping & pasting

  8. Svetlana, hopefully you can help me. My question is in regards to a "Excel Survey" spreadsheet.

    I created a survey that seems to work fine. All info input into the survey populates my spreadsheet as it should. My end-state is to allow anyone access to read the data that the survey collects with the ability to filter information in any column, but no one should be able to change/edit anything on the sheet.

    Looking above at protection, I don't seem to have "changes" block under review tab. I can't seem to find any info either on how to protect this information for just viewing.

    My questions are, how, and can I, protect the sheet? If I can, is it possible to allow filtering to work for all viewers with the sheet protected?

    Thanks for any info you can provide.

  9. I've Customer receipt/stock system on my desktop.
    I want my data to be update online on certain period e.g. every 1 hour.
    I'm not always on my shop, So I can watch update sale after every 1 hour whenever I'm

    Can you Please help me, how do I achieve this task in simplest way.
    Thanks & Regards
    Rizwan

  10. Hi

    could you please tell me if any customized work book will appear the same as in the stand alone excel version? or it will be over-written by the web? Im just wondering

    1. Hi Caesar,

      From my experience, it appears exactly the same as in the desktop version, except if it contains macros, shapes or other features that are not supported in Excel Online.

  11. Hello, I have seen on the official site That macros seems supported on excel services (execution only, not creation)
    Anybody could confirme this ?

    Thank you

  12. Hello, i am trying to use onedrive.live.com to generate html coded spreadsheet to embed on a website for a order form. I need to get the user online to be able to save it online so when they submit the form the data comes through to us? is this possible?
    thank you
    rosie

  13. The Help of Excel online says that there is no 'Save' button because the workbook are saved automatically. Do you know how fast/often the workbook is saved?

  14. I can't see the changes group under review tab as shown here in My online Excel. I want to share 2 sheets from single excel file to 2 users and I want them to be able to view all data but I expect them to be able to make changes in their individual sheet only. (User A changes Sheet-1 only, User B changes Sheet-2 only, User A and B views both Sheet. I can view and Edit them all) Thanks In Advance.

  15. Hi, I m having trouble leaving certain cells in unlocked in worksheets on excel one drive. When I follow the instructions above, the entire worksheet is locked in the online version and no cells are editable, even though they are in the desktop version of excel. Any ideas on where I might be going wrong?

    1. Before locking your worksheet,first unprotect the cells you want to be editable from the Format Cell... dialogue box by unchecking the unlock button for cells at the Protection tab.

  16. Hi,

    Tanks a lot for this article.
    Can you tell me if embed Excel Online spreadsheet document in website using iframe crawled by search engines and indexed? Recently I tried with Google Spreadsheet but seems like it is not helping me regarding SEO. Here is the document in page that I want to take this dvantage(http://www.voipfreedomidd.com/call-rate.html )- So finding alternative.

    Will be awaiting to hear from you, thanks in advance.

  17. hello,

    is it possible to work on spreadsheets located on a local shareddrive using excel online directly without moving the spreadsheet to onedrive?

    Thanks

  18. Dear Svetlana,

    An excel file placed on "one drive" can be downloaded/saved by the user on his/her computer.

    Any idea how to prevent?

    Regards,

    Atif

  19. Hi,

    Is there a way to allow specific users to edit only specific cells or rows? In other words, I want to share a spreadsheet online with a team of people and each person has a row of cells that relates only to them - So, each row of cells is only editable by one specific user.

  20. Hi, I am embedding the Excel spreadsheet onto a webpage. The green box is very misleading, as users can select every cell (including those that are protected/ locked.) Can I disable it in the Embed options?

  21. i have a one excel sheet that are formatting cells size & row for print custom invoice.but my problem in when i tried to print that sheet from another computer i cant print it correctly all format are automatically change can u help me how can i do it correct way

  22. I currently have a spreadsheet in Google docs that is fed data by a google docs form that Area managers have a link to. After they fill it out it sends an email notifying everyone on the distro list that an event has just occurred. We have moved to 365 and I can't get the same functionality from excel online. Is there a way to tie a form to the excel online spreadsheet and have it generate an email once it is filled out?

  23. Hi Svetlana,

    Microsoft allows visitors to access my entire spreadsheet and download if they desire. is there any way to remove "view full-size workbook" icon?

    Thank

  24. Hi,

    Is it possible to embed the office web app into your own web based .net application? Connecting to a SQL data source?

    Thanks

  25. Hi Svetlana,
    I need to lock certain cells, but my review tab doesn't have the options, just show comments and new comments.
    Where did I go wrong?
    Thanks,
    Anna

  26. I need to save the client webpage changes

    how to code it
    beucase said interacion
    let people type into cells (their changes will not be saved)
    I need to make the changes effective

    1. Hello Alfredo,

      Please describe the result you are trying to achieve in more detail. Do you want clients to see all their changes next time they log into the site or you want all the changes to be sent to you for checking or anything else?

  27. Hi Svetlana -

    Just want to say thank you for the great support you are doing here. A task Microsoft has obviously failed to do.

    Best

  28. I was able to upload a spreadsheet to OneDrive, but can't figure out what the Excel Web Ap is. Where do I get this? It's not in the play store. When I open the spreadsheet on my tablet there are no tabs at the top like in your article to Create of Upload or edit. I can only view and can't use the slicers. Fairly useless with large data sets.

  29. Hi Svetlana,

    The problem still remains because even after I remove the download link, visitors can still download the spreadsheet by clicking on "view full size workbook" in the same bottom bar.

    Thanks

    1. I was just wondering if you've found a solution to this problem yet.

      Thanks

    2. I am having this same issue, would love to know how to stop this?

  30. Hi Svetlana,

    Thanks for this post.

    I would like to set up a webpage spreadsheet where people can input data and the spreadsheet calculates the results. I have successfully set this up. The problem I am having is want web visitors to only be able to see their inputs/results without seeing my entire spreadsheet which is proprietary. While I can limit the range that appears,I have noted that in the bottom bar where it says "Excel Web Ap", Microsoft allows visitors to access my entire spreadsheet and download if they desire. I do not want this. Any way to prevent this or any other resources you would recommend that could solve my problem?

    1. Hello Bif,

      You can disable this icon by including &wdDownloadButton=False in your workbook address (src=parameter).

      You can find more information about different parameters that you can use when publishing workbooks on your website in this article by Microsoft:

  31. Hi Svetlana,

    Your article is excellent.

    I stumbled across it while searching for a way to convert an excel price list into a secure (ie: password) web based ordering tool.

    Only invited customers will be given the password. Customers will sort & filter to find products in the price list, enter qty to order, see order total, then somehow submit that order.

    I was really looking for a method to simply convert the spreadsheet to a simple online order store, but this seems to be a possible alternative.

    Importantly, I don't want a customer to be able to extract the entire price list (copy/paste, save as).

    Your thoughts would be very much appreciated.

    Cheers,
    Duncan

    1. Simply lock your worksheet while unlocking the cells ranges that you want your customers to sort and filter.
      Doing this will make it impossible for anyone to copy your whole file.

    2. Hello Duncan,

      I've consulted our VBA specialists and they say that Excel may not be the best platform for your task. For example, we don't know how to disable Copy / Paste in Excel Online. In the desktop version of Excel, you can block icons using VBA, which users could also turn off. So, probably a better way would be looking for some out-of-the-box modules for your web-site. As far as I know, there are a great number of such modules for different platforms.

  32. Hi Ma'am,

    I'm encountering some issues with Excel Online that wasn't present when it was still Excel Web App. I have some files that use external data connections to gather data from 1) an sql server, 2) an OData feed and 3) a data import "From Web". I uploaded them to OneDrive so I could embed them on web pages. "Refresh All Connections" used to work fine then I noticed recently that they're throwing an error. Some have "...external data connection or BI features not supported." Others have "...connection failed to refresh" and "XML maps not supported." I haven't done any changes to them or to their connections but I can't seem to make them work again. The only difference I can see is that they're opening with Excel Online now whereas previously it was Excel Web App.

    I hope you can enlighten me with this.

    Thanks!

    1. Hello Rina,

      I am very sorry but I am not able to help you with this. Please contact Microsoft support service directly and describe the issues you are experiencing. I believe they will be able to assist you better because they know the nuts and bolts of their own programs.

      1. Thanks for the reply! I'll do more research on it. However, maybe you can just help me clarify one more thing. Would you know if the feature of refreshing external data connections still supported on Excel Online? Asking this because upon creating and uploading new documents with external data connections, they already fail upon clicking the refresh on Excel Online. I've seen articles (http://bit.ly/1wMZzZ0) stating significant differences between Services, Web App and Online but now, it seems that everything redirects to Online.

        Thanks again.

        1. Hello Rina,

          The basic options are supported in Excel Online, but the normal, fully-functional handling of external data connections is possible only in Excel desktop only. Here is what Microsoft states in this regard: "You can use Excel Online to view data connections, but you can't create external data connections using Excel Online. You'll need the Excel 2013 desktop app to work with external data". For more details, please see this article on Microsoft's website:
          https://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-help/working-with-external-data-in-excel-services-HA102830785.aspx

          1. Alright. Thank you so much!

  33. Hi! I'm not sure if you would know this but is it possible to use a screen reader with the embedded web app? Or is it possible to use just the keyboard to go "in" and "out" of the embedded app on the web page? I'm thinking in terms of accessibility for this feature. Thanks!

    1. Sorry, John, I don't know the answers to these questions.

  34. hey, i wanted to ask that after the file is uploaded do all the authorized people need to have the 2013 version of excel to work online or will 2007/2010 version will work?

  35. what is the css div class container "name" for a onedrive web excel workbook? I want to style the div i have enclosed the html code with.

    for example if it was a calendar i was uploading and then styling I would use:
    .calendar-container {
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
    etc
    etc
    etc

    Thanks

  36. Hello,
    Is it possible to share continuously updating data? and it should to updating on client viewer computer.
    Example: PLC is updating data at 183Kbps on excel sheet in computer1 we need to share this excel sheet on another computer2 will it be keep updating the data as in computer1. Is this feature is available?

  37. Is it possible to stop the scroll position jump to the top when i access the embeded link?

    this seems to happen in chrome.

  38. I have desktop Excel spreadsheet system to run an ice hockey league's schedule, standings and player stats. I have been updating schedule manually from the hardcopy gamesheets and I have a macro that reads the schedule and updates the standings automatically. I also update the player stats manually from the gamesheets. Then I highlight areas on the various spreadsheets and save-as html, then I FTP those up to the webserver where the webpages embed that html code into the pages. I have been asked to quote an online system so the timekeeper can update the site with a tablet or laptop as the games are taking place. I have always thought I would have to create a database driven web application to do this but now I am investigating this online spreadsheet option. I have two questions.

    1 - Can data from this platform be pushed to an "includes" folder on a website automatically after an update?

    2 - Some of my macros are very extensive. Do macros work well in the online version. i.e. I currently enter the scores in the schedule on sheet1 and hit "Ctrl s" to kick off a macro. The macro goes through quite a gyration to re-calculate and sort a new "League Standings" table, which is stored in sheet2. I then manually push the appropriate cells in sheet1 and sheet2 up to the webserver so that data can be embedded in the appropriate web pages.

    If I can accomplish this online with Excel, rather than writing a PHP/MySQL application from scratch, it would be a major coup.

    Please advise.

    Sheff

  39. hello Svetlana mam

    thanks for your technical advice mam , there is new issue arises that i shared my excel online spreadsheet with 5 email id for working together but if one user apply filter than another user see the filter already applied and than he have to wait or he have to stop work, so working become more typical in this case. please help me mam.

    1. Hello ANSHUL,

      I am afraid I can't help you with this issue. You can probably contact Microsoft support service (support.microsoft.com).

  40. Hey,
    I would like to ask is it possible to link two or more excel files so they would work together.
    Simple example vlookup from getting data from database from another file.

    Thank you
    Vlado

    1. Hi Wlado,

      Yes, it is possible. Just make sure the Excel file from which you want to get the updated information is opened.

  41. Hi,

    Is there a way to stop an Excel document from being edited in Excel Online and only in the Excel Client.

    The use case is to stop a user editing a copy because the file contains unsupported features.

    I understand that you can protect a workbook and manage file permissions but I want to allow a user to edit the file only through the Excel Client and just view with Excel Online.

    Thanks
    David

  42. Hello,

    I have recently embedded a rather complex spreadsheet on our website using iframe. Users are able to set the value of a specific cell to see personalized results. This works fine when visiting the site via Firefox, etc., but I can't figure out why the cell data can't be changed when viewing on an iPad. Is this functionality available when browsing on iPad or just a normal browser?

    Thanks,

    Brian

    1. Hello Brian,

      I have never worked with Excel Online on iPad but I doubt this is normal behavior. Microsoft can hardly expect anyone to install a special browser to work with Excel Web apps. I think you can try contacting Microsoft's support, probably they will be able to suggest a fix.

  43. Hello mam,

    I am working in a government ngo , our work it to providing help to poor childrens and providing free education and relief fund into there bank accounts . it can be approx 50000 children in the city . I made a excel format to collect the data from them but it is very difficult to take data offline so is there any option where i can take online data from different applicants in the that format......
    although i can share a general file but there is huge risk of deletion , addition, updation of past data by diffrent user if we allow to work into same worksheet.so please mam give the way to fix this problem. thanks :)

    1. Hello ANSHUL,

      An ideal solution would be creating a database with separate rules for inputting and editing data.
      If you want to do this my means of Excel, you can create a table template and send it to your users. Each user will fill in the table with their own details (online or offline) and then you can consolidate all tables together using this Excel Consolidation add-in.
      Please see the section "Merge Excel worksheets without copying and pasting" on the above page for more information. A free 20-day trial of the add-in is available.

  44. Is it mandatory the user should have Microsoft account to Login. Can they use a different account

    thank you

    1. Hello Jatin,

      If you want to share your online workbook with other users, they do not necessarily need to have Microsoft accounts. If you want to embed your online spreadsheets onto a website or blog or edit them using Excel Online, then you do need a Microsoft account.

  45. hi,

    I have shared an excel workbook and multiple people are using the sheet to add and remove data. Is there a way if one user is working on the sheet the second user should get notification that someone is working on the worksheet with the name

    thank you

  46. 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?

  47. 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

    1. 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.

      1. 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?

        1. Hi, same problem here.
          Could you find a solution?
          Thx!

        2. 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!!

  48. 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

    1. Hi Prem,

      Sorry, I am not aware of any way to do this automatically, most likely this is not possible.

  49. Hi Desire,
    to my project having some doubt bcz how to create an online excel automatically.....i need ur help...

    1. 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.

  50. Hi,

    What is maximum capacity(in Mbs) can an excel file be loaded and accessed in OnDrive?

    Desire

    1. 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.

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