allow multiple users on excel spreadsheet

[Guest]

We have an excel spreadsheet that needs to be accessed by several users.
Currently, only one person can access at a time to input information. Can
several users access the spreadsheet and input information simultaneously?

 

[Conrad Carlberg]

Yes. Choose Tools | Share Workbook and fill the Allow checkbox on the
Editing tab. There are some additional options to set. Of course, the
workbook needs to be accessible to all the users in something such as a
shared folder.

But be aware that there are various things that you can't do once you share
a workbook, until you un-share it. And when you get enough data (I'm talking
thousands of rows and a few columns) in it, I've found that they have a
disconcerting tendency to freeze. I won't share out workbooks anymore: I'd
much rather my users enter and edit data in a true database that was
designed from the ground up to be a multi-user application, and then bring
the data into Excel for analysis using either an external data range or a
pivot table.

 

[Guest]

Thank you Conrad. However, I had additional problems. For instance, one of
the workbooks that I wanted to share kept giving me a "open as read only"
box. My only thought is that that particular workbook has been saved to be a
read only file, however I could not figure that out. Excel Help suggested
that I save the workbook again and then share it but I was a little hesitant.
Also, is there a way where I can see the work that is being input into the
Excel file in real time. Let me explain: We create contracts and then use the
Excel workbook to record the contract number and several other pieces of
information. It's helpful to see what contracts have been created so that we
can avoid creating duplicate contracts. Any insight that you can give me
would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Conrad Carlberg]

Thank you Conrad. However, I had additional problems. For instance, one of
the workbooks that I wanted to share kept giving me a "open as read only"
box. My only thought is that that particular workbook has been saved to be a
read only file, however I could not figure that out.

In my experience, one sees that "open as read only" message when another
user has the file open, and it's not been shared. In that case, Excel will
not allow a subsequent user to save the file with the same filename and to
the same path (IMHO, the "read only" message is misleading). So I suspect
that another user had already opened the (unshared) workbook.

Also, is there a way where I can see the work that is being input into the
Excel file in real time.

Not that I know of -- not without re-opening the workbook, which doesn't
classify as "real time.".

The problems you describe are among the reasons I avoid sharing workbooks
and use a combination of a database and Excel instead.

 

[Dave Peterson]

There's an option on the tools|share workbook|advanced tab
that can be used to update changes--but the other users have to save the
workbook for those to be seen. (So it's not real time either.)

(and I, too, have never used Shared workbooks in real life.)

There's a big list under "Features that are unavailable in shared workbooks" in
excel's help.