You can publish items from Excel quickly by clicking Save As Web Page on the File menu, and then clicking the appropriate selection and options in the Save As dialog box. Or, for a more comprehensive set of options and instructions, you can click the Publish button in the Save As dialog box.

• Saving as a Web page allows you to save an entire workbook on a Web page. The workbook displays static data (users cannot change data or formatting on the Web page) in the browser. This type of file can be re-opened and edited in Excel. You can save an entire workbook on a Web page by clicking Save As Web Page on the File menu, and then clicking Entire Workbook in the Save As dialog box.
• Publishing as a Web page allows you to save both non-interactive and interactive types of data (interactive means that users can make changes to data, calculations, and some formatting in the browser and see the results on the Web page). When you publish from Excel, though, the resulting HTML file should not be re-opened and edited in Excel.

Keep reading for more detailed information on saving as a Web page and on publishing as a Web page in Excel.

Saving

You can save an entire workbook to a Web page and have the ability to re-open the Web page in Excel and make changes to the data. Formatting, graphics, and charts are displayed on the Web page as shown in Excel. However, user interactivity with the workbook in the browser is limited. For instance, when you save a workbook with 12 worksheets showing financial figures for each month in a year as a Web page, a user can click a sheet tab to view the figures for a particular month. However, a user cannot change the figures in the browser. Instead, the page can be re-opened in Excel, and changes to data can be made there.

After you save your entire workbook as a Web page, the Web page (.htm) file becomes the current file in Excel. You can then make any changes you want in Excel.

To learn how to save an entire workbook to a Web page, type Save workbook as Web page in the Office Assistant or on the Answer Wizard tab in the Excel Help window, and then click Search. Click the topic Put an entire workbook on a Web page.

Publishing

When you publish items on a Web page from Excel, you can choose to let users interact with the data, calculations, and some formatting on the Web page. You can republish or append data into an existing published Web page. However, you can publish and display only a portion of a worksheet, not the whole workbook. And, you should not re-open the Web page in Excel to make modifications.

There are two ways to publish in Excel: you can publish items from Excel quickly by using the Save As dialog box which is displayed when you click Save As Web Page on the File menu. Or, for a more comprehensive set of instructions and options, click the Publish button in the same dialog box to display the Publish as Web Page dialog box.

Publish interactive items quickly

You can publish a range of cells, the worksheet, a chart or a PivotTable® list quickly and easily. First, select the item you want to save to a Web page, such as a range of cells or a chart, and click Save As Web Page on the File menu. You will notice that your selection is reflected in the Save As dialog box. If you want to allow users to make changes to data, calculations, and some formatting on the Web page, select the Add interactivity checkbox. If you want the data to be static so that users cannot make changes to it, make sure the Add interactivity checkbox is cleared. Click Save.

Use the Publish as Web Page dialog box

For a more comprehensive set of instructions and options when publishing items from Excel, use the Publish as Web Page dialog box. It can be accessed by clicking Publish in the Save As Web Page dialog box:

Help and tips

The Publish as Web Page dialog box offers help tips and topics not available in the Save As dialog box. For example, when the Publish as Web Page dialog box is first displayed, the Office Assistant offers help with topics such as Publishing data to the Web (an overview), Specifying what to publish, Specifying how to make data interactive and more. Also, the dialog box contains text that describes each viewing option as it is selected. For example, when you select the Add interactivity with checkbox, and select Spreadsheet functionality from the list, text below the option explains that you can Enter and calculate data in Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 or greater.

Select items to be published

The Publish as Web Page dialog box lists all of the items in your workbook that can be published. For example, if you have a selection of cells and a chart on your worksheet, the list of items from which you could choose would include a sheet and a chart.

Open published Web page in browser

You can check an option to view your Web page in the browser after it is published when you use the Publish as Web Page dialog box; there is not an equivalent option in the Save As dialog box. This option is helpful when you want to immediately see the results of a published spreadsheet, chart, or PivotTable list on a Web page.

More information on publishing

For more information on how to publish a worksheet on a Web page so that others can interact with the data, type Publish in the Office Assistant or on the Answer Wizard tab in the Excel Help window, and then click Search. Click the topic Put a worksheet on a Web page. To publish a chart interactively, type Publish chart instead and click the topic Put a chart on a Web page. To publish a PivotTable list interactively, type Publish PivotTable report and click the topic Put a PivotTable report on a Web page. Each of these help topics contains jumps to other help topics that explain how to publish the same type of data non-interactively.

Get help modifying published data

Users can work with interactive items in Internet Explorer 4.01 and later. Once published, you should not re-open the Web page in Excel to modify it. Instead, you should modify a published Web page in a design program such as FrontPage® 2000. Or, you can modify the original Excel workbook and republish the data instead. When you republish the data, Excel replaces only the data you select.

For more information on republishing items, type Republish in the Office Assistant or on the Answer Wizard tab in the Excel Help window, and then click Search. Click the topic Modify and republish data on a Web page that was previously saved by Excel.