Microsoft Excel Web App extends your Microsoft Excel experience to the web browser, where you can work with workbooks directly on the website where the workbook is stored. Excel Web App is available for personal use in Windows Live, in organizations that have installed and configured Office Web Apps on their SharePoint site, and for professionals and businesses that subscribe to select Office 365 services.
For more information about Office Web Apps, see Getting started with Office Web Apps.
Integrate seamlessly with Excel
You create a workbook in Excel. You want to post it on a website so that others can interact with the live data, maybe even enter some data. What if you want to collaborate with someone who has a different version of Excel than you do? Wouldn't it be great if you could work on it together, right there on the website? Excel Web App makes this scenario possible.
In Microsoft Excel 2010 you can start using Excel Web App by saving your workbook to your SkyDrive or your SharePoint library. On the File tab, click Save & Send, and then click Save to Web or Save to SharePoint.
Now, your workbook is available to view and edit in the browser, or re-open in Excel.
Note You can use Excel Web App to work with workbooks created in earlier versions of Excel. For best compatibility, download the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats, and save files in the Office Open XML file format. Save or upload the workbook to a SharePoint site where Office Web Apps are configured, or upload the workbook to SkyDrive.
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View a workbook in the browser
When you open your workbook in Windows Live or SharePoint, Excel Web App opens the workbook in the browser, where you can navigate through the workbook, sort, filter, expand and collapse PivotTables, and even recalculate the workbook.
You can also use the Find command to search for words or phrases. As with a web page, you can select content on a worksheet and copy it so that it's available to paste in another application.
Edit in the browser
If you want to make changes to the workbook, click Edit in Browser to change data, enter or edit formulas, and apply basic formatting.
In Editing view, you can type and format text as you normally would, and you can use cut, copy, paste and undo/redo commands. Enter a formula by going to the cell where you want to enter the formula, typing an equal-sign (=), and then typing the formula or function.
You can also add tables and hyperlinks. Go to the Insert tab to add these.
Note In Windows Live, Excel Web App includes the capability to insert charts. This feature is not available when you use Excel Web App on a SharePoint site.
Excel Web App saves your workbook automatically while you work on it. There's no need to save your changes. If you make changes you don't want to keep, use the Undo command (or press CTRL+Z).
Work with others
If you make your workbook available for others to edit, your friends or colleagues can work on the workbook at the same time as you. This works well for workbooks where you are collecting information from a group of people, such as a list of information or a group project. No more e-mailing a list around, or waiting for your teammate to check it back in on the server.
While you are editing the workbook, Excel Web App shows you whether others are also working on the workbook.
- Store the workbook on a website where your colleagues can access it, such as your team's SharePoint library or a folder in SkyDrive that your colleagues can access.
- Invite others to work on the notebook.
- In SharePoint, copy the web address of the workbook that appears in the browser (highlight it, and press CTRL+C), and then paste the web address into a message (press CTRL+V).
- In SkyDrive, click the File tab in Excel Web App, and then click Share. Add the people you want to share the workbook with, click Save, and then compose a message.
- Edit the workbook in Excel Web App. You will be able to see who else is working with you in the status bar.
Seamlessly edit in Excel
Editing in Excel Web App is best suited for quick changes or working collaboratively with others. If you need the full set of Excel capabilities, click the File tab, and then click Open in Excel.
Excel Web App opens the workbook directly in your Excel desktop application, where you can work more substantially — for example, if you want to modify the settings for a chart or PivotTable. In Excel, when you click Save, Excel saves the workbook back on the web server.
Note To be able to use the Open in Excel feature in Excel Web App you must be running Excel 2003 or later and Internet Explorer or Excel 2010 and Firefox.
