How To Share An Excel File For Easy Collaboration

Collaboration is important in many workplaces. Since most projects require access to files by a large number of users, it became necessary to set up together.

Microsoft Excel is one of the many programs used by companies around the world. Thus, the need for shared books is critical.

In this post, learn how you and your team can collaborate using Excel 2016 and other versions of Excel for the web.

Sharing Excel Files Offline

Share Excel files offline

If you have a local network connection, all users on the network can access any file. Not only that, any changes made to the file can be tracked. You can also specify which users will have access to the file.

Start by saving the file in a location that is accessible to everyone in your group. Then you can set up your file to work together.

Adding Reverse General Ledger Function

Office 365 users will find the Shared Ledger feature hidden by default. This is because Microsoft encourages users to publish books online.

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This is how you enable this feature. If you are using an older version of Excel, you can skip to the next section – “Sharing a Document”.

Choose File> Options> Quick Access Toolbar.

From the Select Commands From drop-down menu, select All Commands. Scroll through the list until you see “Share Book (Legacy)” and select that item.

Click the Add button.
Do the same for the following commands:

Change Tracking (Legacy)
Protect Sharing (Legacy)
Compare and Merge Books

Click OK when finished.

Share a document

On the Review tab, click the Share Book button.

Those who followed the steps in the Add Reverse Shared Book Feature section will instead find the Share Book button (along with any other commands you added) on the Quick Access Toolbar.

A dialog box will appear. Check the box that enables the shared books feature.

Go to the Advanced tab and enable Change Tracking and other options you might want to enable.

Protect your file

The above steps give everyone access to your file. But by default it also grants everyone administrative access. Protecting your file means that access to it will be restricted and tracked.

Go to the Browse tab and click the Protect and Share Book button.
Select the Change Tracking Sharing check box.

You should also create a password, otherwise anyone can reset the book to its original settings.
Save changes and exit.

Sharing Excel Files for the Web

Share Excel files online

While working offline is a great solution, you are hampered by the need for a shared local drive. Obviously, surfing the Internet is the best choice. Here’s how to do it.

Using OneDrive

Open a file and choose File> Share> Save to Cloud.

Invite people you want to collaborate with by entering their email address. You can also set permission settings.
When finished, click Share.

Using Google Drive

Google Drive is probably the easiest way to work on a project at the same time. Anyone with a Google account can access the files and edit them as needed.

Sign in to your account and go to Google Drive
Once inside, you can create a new file or load an existing one.

After creating or uploading a document, click the Share button in the upper right corner of the sheet.

This will give you the option to share your spreadsheet by providing an email address or by sending a link to your colleagues.

All changes are automatically tracked and saved. You can work together on a document in real time, which is very convenient.

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