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 5. Total comments: 159

  1. 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

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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

  6. 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?

  7. 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!!

  8. 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.

  9. 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.

  10. 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.

  11. Thanks Svetlana,

    the last one, Can I share some of spreadsheets to users?

    Regards,

    Desire

  12. 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

    1. 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.

      1. 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

        1. Desire,

          I have tried to answer these questions, to the best of my knowledge, in comment 13 above.

  13. 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

    1. 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).

  14. 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?

    1. 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.

  15. 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

    1. 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.

  16. 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

  17. Thanks is much!

  18. 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

    1. 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.

  19. 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?

    1. 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.

      1. 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.

        1. 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.

          1. 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.

            1. 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 : (

  20. Is there any limit on number of users working simultaneously?

    1. 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.

  21. 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.

    1. 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).

  22. my excel file has many sheets and I only want to share a certain sheet with friend. Can i do it?

    1. 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.

  23. Does one need a Microsoft/Hotmail/Live account to edit shared Excel Online spreadsheets?

    1. 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.

  24. Thank you. For the information. It was almost the functionality I need.. Your information was most helpfull.

  25. I have a VB macro in my workbook, that does not function in the online version. What am I doing wrong?

    1. 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.

      1. 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

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