Share an Excel Workbook

How to Share an Excel Workbook? (Step by Step)

For sharing an Excel workbook with other users, we need to save this to a local network location where others can access it and make changes. We also can keep track of those changes and can accept or reject those changes as per the requirement.

Let’s take the below example to understand how to share an excel sheet.

We have given below customer details in a workbook saved with the name of Customer Data”.

Highlight the Changes Done on Excel By Other Users

We can also highlight the changes which have been done by other users. Follow the below steps:

• Step 1: Go to the REVIEW tab.
• Step 2: Click on the Track Changes option in ExcelTrack Changes Option In ExcelTracking changes in Excel is a technique of highlighting changes made in a shared worksheet by any user. It highlights the cell that has been modified. This option is present in the "changes" section of the review tab and can be enabled when we share a workbook.read more under the Changes section. Refer to the below screenshot.

• Step 3: This will show you two options as per the below screenshot.

• Step 4: Click on Highlight changes.
• Step 5: This will open a dialog box here. See the below screenshot.

• Step 6: Click on, OK.
• Step 7: Now click on the Protect Shared Workbook option under the Changes section, as shown in the below screenshot.

• Step 8: It will open a dialog box. Tick on the checkbox, as shown in the below screenshot.

• Step 9: Click on, OK.
• Step 10: Now, Excel will show the changes done by the users.
• Step 11: How does it look after changes? For your reference, I am going to make some changes in the file and save that changes.
• Step 12: Now, the sheet automatically highlights the changes wherever done by me, as shown in the below screenshot.

How to Accept/Reject the Changes Done by Other Users

We can accept or reject the changes done by other users if those changes are not according to us. For this, follow the below steps:

• Step 1: Go to the REVIEW tab.
• Step 2: Click on the Track Changes in excelTrack Changes In ExcelTo track changes in Excel - click on review>track changes> select "highlight changes" option> a window will appear> find and click on the checkbox " track changes while editing"> select who and desired time> click on "highlight changes on screen" option> click ok to save. It's done.read more under the Changes section as done before.
• Step 3: Choose the Accept/Reject Changes option from the list, as shown in the below screenshot.

• Step 4: Then, a dialog box will appear, as shown in the below screenshot.

• Step 5: Click on, OK.
• Step 6: Then, a dialog box will appear, and it will show you all the changes one by one, as shown in the below screenshot. It will also highlight the cell in the spreadsheet where that changes are made.

• Step 7: Click on the Accept button to accept the changes or the Reject button to reject the changes.

Important Points to Remember

Excel shared workbook file feature has some limitations. The reason is that not all features are fully supported in excel shared workbooksExcel Shared WorkbooksTo share the workbook, open the desired workbook>click on review tab>choose share workbook option>a dialogue box with "editing" and "advanced" tab will open>mark the required checkbox, save changes> upload the file to network location>send the link to the concerned person.read more. Some of the limitations are:

• Sorting and filtering the data in excel
• Conditional formattingConditional FormattingConditional formatting is a technique in Excel that allows us to format cells in a worksheet based on certain conditions. It can be found in the styles section of the Home tab.read more
• Merging Excel cellsMerging Excel CellsMerging a cell in excel refers to combining two or more adjacent cells either vertically, horizontally or both ways. Merging excel cells is specifically required when a heading or title has to be centered over an area of a worksheet.read more
• Hyperlinks in ExcelHyperlinks In ExcelA hyperlink is an inbuilt function in excel used to create hyperlinks for a particular cell. When the hyperlink is created, it redirects to a specific webpage. The hyperlink formula has two arguments, one is the URL while the other is the name we provide to the URL.read more.

You can use those features but won’t be able to add or change them.

• After sharing the workbook, when one or more users are editing on the same workbook simultaneously, some edits can affect the same cells too.
• In these situations, the Excel sheet keeps the changes of the user who saved the workbook first.
• When another user saves the workbook, it will display the Resolve Conflicts dialog box.
• It will display all the information about the conflict changes.
• To resolve conflicts, you can take action accordingly by clicking on Accept Mine, Accept Other, etc.

Recommended Articles

This has been a step by step guide to Share Excel Workbook File. Here we discuss how to Share an Excel Sheet, highlight the changes done in excel, and how to accept/reject the changes done by other users along with practical examples and downloadable templates. You may learn more about excel from the following articles –

• Subscript in Excel
• Using Excel Extensions
• Conditional Formatting in Pivot Table
• How to Share Excel Workbook?