To enable several users to edit a workbook simultaneously, you
must turn on workbook sharing. Workbook sharing is perfect for an
enterprise such as Consolidated Messenger, whose employees need to look
up customer information, shipment numbers, and details on mistaken
deliveries.
To turn on workbook sharing, on the Review tab, in the Changes
group, click Share Workbook. On the Editing page of the Share Workbook
dialog box, turn on workbook sharing by selecting the Allow Changes By
More Than One User At The Same Time check box. You can then set the
sharing options for the active workbook by clicking the Advanced
tab.
Important
You can’t share a workbook that contains an Excel table.
To share the workbook, convert the Excel table to a regular cell range
by clicking the Excel table, clicking the Design tab and then, in the
Tools group, clicking Convert To Range. Click Yes in the dialog box
that opens to confirm the change.
On the Advanced page of the Share Workbook dialog box, two
settings are of particular interest. The first determines whether Excel
should maintain a history of changes made to the workbook and, if so,
for how many days it should keep the history. The default setting is for
the program to retain a record of all changes made in the past 30 days,
but you can enter any number of days you like. If you revisit your
workbook on a regular basis, maintaining a list of all changes for the
past 180 days might not be unreasonable. For a workbook that changes
less frequently, a history reaching back 365 days (one year) could meet
your tracking and auditing needs. Excel deletes the record of any
changes made earlier than the time you set.
Tip
You should find out whether your organization has an information
retention policy that would affect the amount of time you should keep
your workbooks’ change histories.
The other important setting on this page deals with how Excel
decides which of two conflicting changes in a cell should be applied.
For example, a service level’s price might change, and two of your
colleagues might type in what they think the new price should be.
Selecting the Ask Me Which Changes Win option enables you to decide
whether to keep the original price or the changed price.
There are two main ways to share a workbook with your
colleagues: you can make it available over your organization’s network,
and you can send a copy of the file to your colleagues via e-mail. Every
organization’s network is different, so you should check with your
network administrators to determine the best way to share a file.
Similarly, although the specific command to attach a file to an e-mail
message is different in every e-mail program, the most common method of
attaching a file is to create a new e-mail message and then click the
Attach button, as in Microsoft Outlook 2010.
In this exercise, you’ll turn on workbook sharing and then attach
the file to an Outlook 2010 e-mail message.
Important
You must have Outlook 2010 installed on your computer to follow
this procedure exactly.
Set Up
-
In Excel, on the Review
tab, in the Changes group, click
Share Workbook.
The Share Workbook dialog box opens.
-
Select the Allow changes by more than
one user at the same time check box.
Tip
Workbook merging is the process of bringing changes
from several copies of a shared workbook into the source workbook.
For more information on the topic, press F1 to display the Excel
Help dialog box, search for workbook merging, and click the Merge
Copies Of A Shared Workbook link.
-
Click OK.
A message box appears, indicating that you must save the
workbook for the action to take effect.
-
Click OK.
Excel saves and shares the workbook.
-
Click the File tab, click
Save & Send, and then click
Send Using E-mail.
-
Click Send as
Attachment.
A new e-mail message opens with the CostProjections workbook
attached.
-
Type an address in the To
box.
-
Click Send.
Your e-mail program sends the message. If Excel had to open
your e-mail program to send the message, the program would close at
this point.
Clean Up
Close the CostProjections workbook.
