Collaborate, and Watch Everyone’s Progress

Now that you have prepared the workbook, it can be shared. Put it on your network, and then click Share Workbook (Tools menu). On the Editing tab, select Allow editing by more than one user at the same time. Now your team members can get started on their work.

Every time the workbook is saved, it is updated with everyone’s saved changes.

Tired of seeing the comments?   After you’ve read them, turn them off: Click Options (Tools menu). On the View tab, click None in the Comments box. Or print the comments by clicking Page Setup (File menu). On the Sheet tab, select an option in the Comments box. Highlight and review revisions   You can easily see the changes made by your group by clicking Highlight Changes (Tools menu, Track Changes submenu). To review the changes one by one, click Accept or Reject Changes (Tools menu, Track Changes submenu).

What Kinds of Shared Editing Can You Do?

You can do many of the same things in a shared workbook that you can do in a regular workbook. You can create and edit formulas and values; add, delete, and move rows and columns; apply formatting; edit charts; sort and filter the worksheet; and insert and delete sheets. As each user saves the workbook, changes are merged and reconciled.

What if two people change the same cell?   When the second user to make a change tries to save the workbook, a dialog box presents information about both changes. The last person to save can decide which change to keep.

Save and update automatically   You can save your changes and get updates from other users automatically, at an interval that you set. Click Share Workbook (Tools menu). On the Advanced tab, click Automatically every:, and then type the frequency with which you want to save the workbook.

Keep track of who changed what   You can see information about which changes users have decided to keep. When you share the workbook, click Share Workbook. On the Advanced tab, the Track changes for last: option is selected. You can then specify how long you want to retain the revision history. To keep the revision history on a sheet in the workbook, click Highlight Changes (Tools menu, Track Changes submenu) and then click List changes on a new sheet.