Reply to: Sharing excel documents

[WTFH]

And a bit of detail on the new stuff in 2013:
Excel 2013 New Functions

[WTFH]

2013 also has:

• Improved Multi-threading and Memory Contention
• FlashFill
• Power View
• PowerPivot Add-In
• Timeline Slicer
• Slicer with Excel Tables
• Ability to Save files in OneDrive
• Windows App
• Inquire Add-In
• Charting Enhancements
• Recommended Charts and Pivot Tables
• 50 new functions

[WTFH]

2010 also has:

Multi-threading recalculation (MTR) for commonly used functions
Improved pivot tables
Pivot Table Slicers
More conditional formatting options
Additional image editing capabilities
In-cell charts called sparklines
Ability to preview before pasting
Office 2010 backstage feature for document-related tasks
Ability to customize the Ribbon
Many new Function, most highly specialized to improve accuracy

[WTFH]

2010 has these functions, not found in 2007:

AGGREGATE

BETA.DIST

BETA.INV

BINOM.DIST

BINOM.INV

CEILING.PRECISE

CHISQ.DIST

CHISQ.DIST.RT

CHISQ.INV

CHISQ.INV.RT

CHISQ.TEST

CONFIDENCE.NORM

CONFIDENCE.T

COVARIANCE.P

COVARIANCE.S

ERF.PRECISE

ERFC.PRECISE

EXPON.DIST

F.DIST

F.DIST.RT

F.INV

F.INV.RT

FLOOR.PRECISE

F.TEST

GAMMA.DIST

GAMMA.INV

GAMMALN.PRECISE

HYPGEOM.DIST

ISO.CEILING

LOGNORM.DIST

LOGNORM.INV

MODE.MULT

MODE.SNGL

NEGBINOM.DIST

NETWORKDAYS.INTL

NORM.DIST

NORM.INV

NORM.S.DIST

NORM.S.INV

PERCENTILE.EXC

PERCENTILE.INC

PERCENTRANK.EXC

PERCENTRANK.INC

POISSON.DIST

QUARTILE.EXC

QUARTILE.INC

RANK.AVG

RANK.EQ

STDEV.P

STDEV.S

T.DIST

T.DIST.2T

T.DIST.RT

T.INV

T.INV.2T

T.TEST

VAR.P

VAR.S

WEIBULL.DIST

WORKDAY.INTL

Z.TEST

[original PM]

It will work for 2010 onwards BUT it's going to get messy. If a user uses functionality in 2013 that isn't in 2007 (colours/formats/advanced filters) then it will not work for a user on 2007.

Or, to put it another way: Run, Forrest, Run!

Yeah - I keep telling the business that this is generally seen by the technical community as a BAD IDEA and there is a good chance the spreadsheet will corrupt and they will lose everything.

So remember you heard it here first folks

I'll now take bets on whether the support call that their excel spreadsheet is broken and they have lost the data will come in 2018 or they will manage to get into 2019...

I am contemplating sending them a link to this thread.....

[WTFH]

Ok so this is going to be tried (even after I told them about BB's response)

Anyway does anyone know if it works cross version - e.g. excel 2007 v excel 2010 v excel 2013?

It will work for 2010 onwards BUT it's going to get messy. If a user uses functionality in 2013 that isn't in 2007 (colours/formats/advanced filters) then it will not work for a user on 2007.

Or, to put it another way: Run, Forrest, Run!

[original PM]

Ok so this is going to be tried (even after I told them about BB's response)

Anyway does anyone know if it works cross version - e.g. excel 2007 v excel 2010 v excel 2013?

[BoredBloke]

Yeah I have just found that...

wonder how well it will work!

cheers

Simple answer is it doesn't - you'll end up with a corrupt spreadsheet and lost data! I worked at a place where one team did this a lot and they were constantly losing their data. It's a crock!

[ladymuck]

Sharing a workbook is the worst way to allow multiple sheet updates. It will corrupt, be locked out, have the same record overwritten multiple times, etc etc

What's the requirement that leads you think this is needed? Usually happens when a client thinks a spreadsheet is a viable alternative to a basic database - you could set up something simple in Access and have a much better result.

[BR14]

As well as most MS software.

oh, dear, oh dear

[original PM]

As well as most MS software.

I think the main problem is that we seem to want 30+ people to be able to amend/update this spreadsheet - and I think it is just not going to work - people will be overwriting other peoples work etc etc...

[WTFH]

wonder how well it will work!

As well as most MS software.

[original PM]

Yeah I have just found that...

wonder how well it will work!

cheers

[WTFH]

Bad memories.

Yes you can.

Go to Review, click on Share Workbook, first option on the Editing tab is “Allow changes by more than one user at the same time. This also allows workbook merging”

Works in Excel 2010 & 2013 (that’s all I have available to check right now)

[WTFH]

From memory, no. When one user is editing it, is locked.