Whenever you share a workbook with others, an invitation is sent to view it online. Sharing a workbook through email always sends a copy, not the original file. Do you have any idea what shared workbooks are used for?
What are Shared Workbooks?
Sharing Excel files with other people gives access to the same local or shared network used with shared workbooks. This method lets you edit an Excel file at the same time and the file owner is responsible to accept or reject those changes. Shared workbooks can be unshared only once you have done shared work.
How to Share an Excel File
You can share an Excel file with more than one user by saving it to a local network where the file is accessible to other people for edits. It is up to you to accept or reject those changes on your end.
Follow the steps given below once the file is opened:
- Open the Review tab given in the Changes group and choose the Share Workbook button.
- You will see the Share Workbook dialog box and from this, you need to choose to Allow changes by more than one user at the same time. You can even merge the workbook check box given on the Editing tab.
- Get on the Advanced tab and choose the desired settings for tracking changes. Click OK.
- For instance, you could have to update changes by default every number of minutes.
- It lets you save the Excel file to a network location where the file is accessible to other people as well. for this, you can even use the shortcut key CTRL + S.
- If the procedure is done correctly, you will see the word [Shared] on the right side of the workbook where the name is given.
Now, you can work on the same Excel file as with your fellows. You are responsible to accept or reject the changes and once the changes are done you can halt the workbook sharing. Keep in mind that when Excel does not accept sharing a certain workbook, it could be because of certain reasons:
To share a workbook, you need to deactivate some privacy settings. Open the File tab and then choose Excel Options. Click on the Trust Center and choose the Trust Center Settings button. Uncheck the option Removal personal information from file properties on the save box.
Workbooks containing tables or XML maps are unable to share, therefore, you need to convert those tables to ranges and eliminate the XML maps as well right before sharing the Excel file.
Excel Shared Workbook Limitations
When you intend to share an Excel file, make sure that you don’t have to face problems because some of the features could be incompatible with shared workbooks.
Below are some of the limitations you will face:
- Merging cells
- Conditional formatting
- Hyperlinks
- Macros
- Subtotals
- Sorting and filtering by format
- Worksheet protection
- Data validation
- Array formulas
- Slicers and sparklines
The existing features are readily available to use but you cannot add more changes to them. therefore, if you really want to use the above features, ensure that you apply them before sharing an Excel file.
Things to Consider
As you already know Excel shared workbook file has limitations and mainly it is because not all features are compatible fully with Excel-shared workbooks.
Once the file is shared, you will see effects on the cells when one or more users work on the same workbook at the same time.
You will see the Resolve Conflicts dialog box when a user saves the workbook.
In this situation, the Excel sheet keeps the edits of the user who saved the workbook first.
Apart from that, all the information about the conflict changes will appear.
When you need to resolve the conflict, you have to act on the “Accept Mine”, and “Accept Other,” options.
