How do you send an Excel file that can be edited?

Microsoft has updated its Office 365 subscription plans and there are some changes worth considering if you're already using Microsoft software like Word or Outlook. There is a new plan called Office 365 Personal which gives users access to all of their personal files stored within OneDrive rather than having them stored locally on their computer.

Office 2016 also includes several updates such as better integration between Windows 10 and other devices (including tablets), but we'll stick to talking about those changes specifically related to Excel. The most notable update is probably the addition of Simplified Sharing, which makes it much simpler to collaborate on spreadsheets with people who don't have full editing privileges.

So today we'll take a look at what this new functionality means for you, whether you want to just give someone else permission to view a sheet, or want to restrict their edits completely. Let's begin!

How do I share an Excel file for Reading?

You may not realize it, but when you download an Excel workbook from somewhere online, it isn't automatically set up to allow anyone to open it. If they try to open it, you will see a message saying "This Document Can Be Opened By You?" This happens because by default, any time you download something from the internet, it goes into your Documents folder. When you click Open, it checks through every single one of your documents to find out whether they should be opened, then opens whichever ones say Yes.

If you've got a lot of documents, this could mean opening quite a few tabs before finding the right one -- especially since many computers aren't particularly speedy these days. Instead of doing that, why not create shortcuts to each individual worksheet instead? That way, you won't need to keep scrolling around looking for the correct tab, saving yourself both time and bandwidth.

To do this, first head over to File Explorer and browse down until you spot your Downloads folder. Right-click on anything inside here, select Create Shortcut, type %HOMEPATH%\Downloads into Location, and press Enter. Next, go back to File Explorer and double-click on the shortcut icon next to whatever.xlsx file you'd like. It should now launch directly into said workbook without needing to load everything else first.

From there, simply follow the same steps above again to assign different shortcuts to each of your various Excel sheets. Just remember to include the extension (.xlsx) after either HOMEDRIVE:\FolderName or USERDICTIONARY:[User Dictionary Name].[Extension], depending on where you live.

For example, my shortcuts would look something like this:

"C:\Users\Keegan\Documents\My Workbooks\[Excel Data].xlxs"

Now that you know how to get started, let's talk about making your own Excel files more easily sharable.

How do I share an Excel file for Editing?

Sharing a file for reading doesn't require too much explanation -- it basically works exactly the same as downloading a PDF. But if you want to ensure that someone else can actually make changes to a certain file, you need to think carefully about how you want to handle permissions. Thankfully, things are made far less complicated thanks to the introduction of Shared Workspaces last year.

First off, you should check that your recipient hasn't been added to your existing group yet. To do this, head to Settings & Privacy " Groups and Permissions, scroll down to My People, and double-check that nobody listed under Specific Roles matches your email address.

After this, it's time to add them manually. Head to Start " All Programs " Office " Office 365 " Online Services " Click Manage Users. In the resulting window, choose Select Users... and search for whoever you wish to add. Once found, hit Edit and enter your details. Afterward, return to the previous screen and repeat the process with everyone else you want to invite.

Once done, you should receive an invitation via email. Go ahead and accept it so that they can join your workspace. They will still need to sign in once they arrive though, so make sure you provide a secure link to avoid being spammed.

How do you save Excel so it can be edited?

The easiest thing to do in terms of formatting is to always leave Excel running while creating large projects. Then, whenever you finish working on one section, just close the file and reopen it later. This ensures that no data gets lost in the event of system crashes, and keeps your entire project nice and tidy.

Alternatively, you can choose Save As.... From here, you can tell Excel to save the current state of your document as a template, which lets you quickly pick up exactly where you left off with minimal effort. Whenever you come across a problem, you can copy the relevant information straight out of your template.

Finally, if you often work on multiple versions of the same document simultaneously, consider setting up macros to help automate repetitive tasks. These can even be used to apply styles and colors to particular sections. Check out our guide to VBA Macros for inspiration.

How do I make an Excel document editable?

As mentioned earlier, shared workspaces were introduced last year as part of the latest version of Office 365. What this does is essentially turn your whole library of office apps into one giant space, complete with custom wallpapers, themes, and plenty of room for collaboration.

One of the best features is that it allows you to decide precisely who can modify whom. So long as two parties are signed in together, the owner of the space can grant additional roles. For instance, you might have admin rights to manage the content, while another person has limited permissions to merely read it.

However, unlike Google Docs' similar option, shared workspaces cannot be turned on or off individually. So if you want to share a specific file with somebody, you must first enable the appropriate workspace, then invite them to join. This is annoying if you just want to tweak permissions on a per-file basis. Luckily, this isn't difficult to fix.

Just visit Settings & Security " Account Info " Advanced settings, switch the toggle beside Enable advanced security options to On, and you can control who can edit what from there. Unfortunately, you can't currently prevent non-members from seeing certain parts of the interface.

Note: Make sure you're logged in to the account associated with your company's Office 365 license, otherwise you won't be able to edit anything.

How do I change an Excel file from read only to editable?

Unfortunately, changing a file from Read Only to Editable requires a fair bit more manual work. However, it shouldn't take very long to accomplish.

Firstly, you should delete all existing contents, including formulas, comments, charts, etc. If you're unsure how to proceed, refer to these helpful tips for removing rows and columns in Excel.

Next, head to Tools " Options " Trust Center " Trust Center Settings and tick Disable password protection for viewing. Hit OK, then close the app and re-open it. Your excel file should now be fully functional.

Remember that these instructions assume you're dealing with a standard Excel document, not a Power Pivot model or something similar. Also note that if you downloaded an XLSX file from elsewhere, you should consult the documentation linked below for further advice.

Documentation regarding how to convert xlsx files to normal.xls format:

https://support.office.com/en-us/articleviewer/63b7e063-8c85-4d9f-a0bd-5beabaf2348b

That concludes our little tutorial on how to share and manipulate Excel files. Hopefully, you learned enough to carry on producing professional reports and spreadsheets tomorrow!

Microsoft introduced a brand-new way to share files via Office 365 last month at its Ignite conference, which was held online rather than in person as usual. The company has also updated its desktop apps so that documents are now sent from Microsoft Teams (formerly Lync) directly into Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook.com without going through the old File menu first.

These updates make collaboration far simpler — especially when working on shared spreadsheets. In this article we explain how to share a workbook while allowing editing using these two methods. We'll also show how to share a simple Excel document that cannot be edited.

Excel is one of our favorite programs because it makes organizing data easy. But sometimes sending large groups of people Excel worksheets can be difficult. You might have to wait hours for someone else to download them, then they may not even want to open them due to their size. Or perhaps they don’t have access to the program needed to view them properly. This is where sharing comes in handy.

How do you send an Excel spreadsheet by email that can be edited?

If you just need to give someone a link to an excel file, you can just right click on the sheet tab containing the data you wish to distribute and select Send to " Email Recipient from the dropdown list. Then enter a name, address and subject line. Click Next & Finish. They will receive an email with a link to the file. It should look something like this:

However, if you want to provide read/write capabilities to those who get the emailed version, there are some steps required. First, go back to the Data tab and scroll down until you see Sheet Options. Select the radio button next to Protect Workbook With Password and type in a password. When you finish, click OK. If you leave this option unchecked, anyone who opens up the workbook after receiving it could easily copy all the information. So keep it locked tight!

Now head over to the Review Tab and check off the box next to Allow Edit and Enter Keys. Once again, making sure to lock everything down. That’s pretty much it! However, if you want to protect certain cells within the workbook, such as specific customer names, dates of birth, etc., you can do that too. Just find each cell and change the settings in the same manner described above.

You can also choose to add a message asking recipients whether they would like to save changes before closing the window. To do this, under the Advanced Settings section, select Prompt Users to Save Changes Before Closing Window. Finally, under Security Settings, you can set a different password for those users who do request edits.

How do I send an editable Excel spreadsheet by email?

So what happens if you decide to send out an Excel workbook but it contains sensitive data that needs protecting? Well, here’s another trick you can try. Head back to the Review Tab, uncheck the box next to Prevent User Viewing Existing Sheets, and select Enable Editing. Now everyone who receives the file will be able to open any existing sheets found therein. For example, let’s say you wanted to create a report based on previous years' sales figures. But instead of having to reenter every single number manually, you could simply pull up the past year's numbers and plug them all in. Your recipient doesn't need to know anything about VBA coding to accomplish this task.

This method won't work for protected sheets however. Those must remain private unless you enable editing privileges as mentioned earlier. Also, remember that enabling editing requires downloading a small applet called XLSM (XML Spreadsheet Metadata). As long as everyone uses Windows 10 or newer versions of Office 2016 or later, everybody should be good to go. Here's a video showing how it works:

https://vimeo.com/27337761

How do I share an Excel spreadsheet and allow Editing?

In case you're wondering why you'd ever want to allow only viewing rights, think about this scenario. Let’s say you've been given permission to update a budget plan provided to your department, but you need to run calculations based on multiple scenarios. Instead of creating several copies of the original workbook, you could easily modify the formulas and results in real time. Then you could export the entire thing to PDF format and print it out for whoever gave you the original. The best part is that this process would happen automatically once you hit Run Calculations.

To do this, you’ll need to turn on macros. Go to Tools" Trust Center" Trust Center Settings. Under Macro Settings, select Disable All Macros except Design Mode. After doing this, you’re ready to start scripting. Open up Visual Basic Editor (VBE), highlight your code, press F5. The macro should execute successfully and return a value, depending upon your inputted formula. And voilà, you've created a script.

Here's a helpful guide explaining exactly how to do this: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/create-customized-macro-for-analyst%E2%80%99s-formula-7dfd8b9a-0f3e-4cad-bd1e-6eafb1acf87b

How do you share a spreadsheet that can be edited?

Perhaps you've already got a project underway, and you know you’ll need to collaborate with other departments soon. Maybe you're trying to track expenses against individual clients. Whatever the reason, sharing your Excel projects among colleagues is essential. Luckily, it's very easy to do.

First, download the free trial of SharePoint Designer 2013. Then follow these instructions to install it locally onto your computer:

http://www.microsoft.com/web/platform/sharepoint/install_locally.aspx#DownloadSharePointDesignerInstallLocallyForLocalUse

Once installed, launch the software and sign in with your administrator account. Then, navigate to File" New Document. A pop-up window will appear. From here, click Create Blank Document, and enter whatever title you’d prefer. Make sure to include “with comments enabled” at the end. Set the Location field to wherever you saved your workbook, and then click Get External Content. Browse to the location of your workbook, and double-click on it.

Next, go to Ribbon" Home" Customize Ribbon. Scroll down until you reach MyCustomizeRibbonTab. Click Add Group. Give it a Name and drag it below Main Tabs. Right-click on the group and select Rename. Change the text inside the parentheses to Documents, then click Ok. Lastly, go ahead and repeat those actions for AdditionalTabs, including Comments, Formulas, Lists, Tables, Drawings, Links, References, Inserted Text, Media Files, Picture Clipping Boxes, Drawing Objects, Web Parts, Quick Access Toolbar, Navigation Pane, Printing Preferences, Page Setup, Font Dialog, Format Painter, Chart Filters, Hidden Items, Visible Status Bar, Background Color, Foreground Color, Object Styles, and SmartArt Graphics.

Click Done once finished. Close out the main ribbon tabs, and then exit the application completely. Repeat those same processes for additional tabs you added. Then restart SharePoint Designer. Navigate back to the main screen, and locate your newly customized workbooks. Double-clicking on it will load the workbook into the editor. You can now begin adding rows, columns, charts, images, and more.

Note: Even though you can customize the default ribbon items, things like customizing the status bar will require opening up the customization panel. To do this, either hover your mouse over the top edge of the pane, or hold Control + Shift keys simultaneously. Another alternative is to right-click anywhere on the ribbon area itself. Choose Properties, followed by Customize Ribbon…from the options available.

Have questions about setting up your own collaborative workflow? Reach out to us @excelfeedback@machinewins.net.

When you're working with a large group of people using Microsoft Office programs such as Word or PowerPoint, you might find yourself needing to email someone else files containing information from those applications. You may also need to email other types of documents (such as PDFs) to colleagues who are not familiar with these office suites. But what if you want to create something like an Excel budget report so that several different team members can add their own data into one place? Or maybe you just have a few spreadsheets that you would like to collaborate on together -- but they aren't currently all open at once. How does this happen now without having everyone install cloud storage software themselves?

Microsoft has recently introduced some changes to its online collaboration features that allow you to easily manage shared content within Outlook 365, Office Online, and Sharepoint. If you've been looking to get more organized when dealing with various collaborative projects, then take a look at our guide below. We'll show you how to set up things so that anyone who needs access to certain parts of a project could simply click "edit" instead of trying to figure out where each person is located on the network.

Note: This article was written based on earlier versions of Excel. In version 2016, there are no longer any buttons labeled "Share," only icons along the top toolbar. The steps will still apply though!

How do you make an Excel workbook editable?

Open the Excel file that contains information you wish to share. For example, we opened a.xlsx file called Budget.xlsm.

Select File " Options... " Trust Center Settings.

Under Privacy & Security, select Advanced settings. Under Collaboration Tools, check Allow editing outside viewer’s domain. Then under Sharing options, choose to enable Edit capabilities on web pages. Click OK.

Now whenever you open the same file in another browser window, you should see a message similar to this:

You can even go further than that, allowing people to download the entire Excel file. To do so, follow the above instructions first. Make sure you have enabled Editing outside viewer’s domain. Next, scroll down until you see “Download” listed in the dropdown menu next to “Allow viewing/editing.” Check both boxes. Finally, click Save As… and save the resulting link somewhere safe. Anyone who opens that link will be able to view or modify the contents of your file.

If someone sends you a link to the file via mail, text messaging application, etc., you can copy-and-paste it into a browser to verify whether you wish to grant them permission to edit or merely read the file. Note that doing so grants full control over the file to whoever sent you the link. However, this method isn’t ideal since many apps don’t support links pasting directly into browsers anymore.

Can an Excel spreadsheet be edited by multiple users?

Yes, however, you must manually change permissions every time someone makes edits. There is no way to assign individual permissions automatically based upon which user last modified it. That said, if you wanted to give certain people permission to edit while keeping others locked out, here’s how you'd do it:

Go back to step 2 (above), but instead of clicking Browse..., browse to the location of the file. Select All Files (*.*).

Click Yes, continue....

This asks you whether you want to allow making changes to the selected item(s). Choose No, cancel...

Then type a name you will recognize later and press Enter. It doesn't matter much because we won’t actually use it.

Finally, click Apply followed by OK.

On the following screen, ensure that Show details box is checked before checking Permissions again. Now, let’s say Joe Smith wants to make edits to his part of the Excel sheet. He clicks Viewer privileges... and selects the appropriate tab. Here he sees that he is given Full Control permissions. He proceeds to enter data into cells B2 through D10. Once finished, he saves his edits.

The problem arises when John Jones tries to make edits to her portion of the spreadsheet. She gets an error saying she doesn't have sufficient rights. So far, everything seems fine. What happens next is where things fall apart. When John goes to change anything, John receives the following warning:  There were errors creating the form. Please re-enter fields. Her section of the file remains unchanged. Why didn’t John receive the same notification about her lack of permissions? Well, if you looked closely at step 5, you’d notice that John chose Full Control. And yes, that means that he had full control over the entire file.

John tried to edit cell A1, yet he couldn’t because he wasn’t allowed to. Instead, when he clicked Viewer Privileges... he saw that only he had permissions due to him selecting Full Control previously. Had he chosen Limited Access instead, he wouldn’t have received the error. Unfortunately, Limited Access gives viewers limited controls compared to Full Controls.

In essence, John didn’t really know why he got the error, nor did he have any ability to fix it himself. Fortunately, there is a solution.

Below is a screenshot of John receiving an error message after saving his edits. Notice in the bottom right corner that he has the option to reset the permissions.

As mentioned, John should select Limited Access from the tabs list. Doing so allows viewers to view but not edit portions of the file. Since John made a mistake during setup, he probably forgot to deselect Full Control. Therefore, John should return to Step 3 (the initial setting process) and uncheck Full Control.

Once he returns home, he should paste the link to the file into a new browser window. Go back to Step 4 and repeat the previous steps except choose Limited Access from the tabs list.

Afterwards, try opening the file in your normal browser window. Try changing a value in a particular cell. See how long it takes to generate the error message. Hopefully, John experienced this issue.

How do you share an Excel file and make it editable?

Here’s how you turn off automatic editing perms:

Browse to the folder holding the Excel file.

Find the file itself (usually named exactly whatever holds the extension (.exe,...)).

Right-click it and select Properties.

Check Delete subcontainers under General. Right-click anywhere inside the properties window and select Modify. Navigate to the root directory of the file.

Delete the file. Don’t delete the actual file – leave it where it sits.

Copy the original file over, replacing the old one. Rename the new copied file accordingly.

Repeat Steps 9 - 12 for the rest of the folders in your drive. Do not remove any directories underneath the root folder. Just move the original file and replace it with the new copies.

To start sharing items, navigate to the file in question. On the ribbon, locate the button labelled Share... Click it.

A pop-up window appears showing your current choices. First, decide whether you wish to share it publicly or privately. If you select Public, anyone with the link can open it. Otherwise, it can only be viewed by those with explicit invitation.

Next, choose between embedding, linking, and giving a direct URL. You can choose to either Embed or Link. Choosing Embed lets you upload the file to Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box, or OneDrive for Business. You can link it to a website or blog post. Lastly, you can provide a personal link to display the file.

Lastly, if you wish to invite collaborators, you’ll need to provide them with a Personal Invite Code. By entering your code, they gain access to the file. They can then alter it according to their preferences.

How do I make an Excel document editable and sharable?

First, head to File > Info. Find the Account tab and double-click your account info. Scroll down until you reach the end of the page and click Add accounts. Follow the prompts to input additional contact emails and passwords. Keep track of these codes for future reference.

Second, go to File > Open & Print... and select Create a Copy. Name the file whatever you wish, such as myExcelFile_copy. Press Finish. Afterward, close the main window.

Third, go to Ribbon " Review " Protect Document. Hit Change Type. From the dropdown menu, pick Customize Protection Levels.

Fourth, fill in the required field names and values. Ensure the Values area includes information that identifies the sections of the protected file. Also, ensure that you include spaces between each entry. Your entries must match this format: SectionName | Cell# | Cell# | Cell# | Cell# | Cell#. Additionally, you can toggle AutoProtect Off if you’re going to protect against accidental overwrites.

Fifth, hit Ok. Upon returning to the main window, select Turn on Protected View.

Sixth, rename the file to whatever you designated earlier by modifying it.