Sharing a workbook

The first way to share a workbook is by turning on file sharing as follows:

1. Open the workbook you want to share.
   Remember to save the workbook you want to share in a folder on your network so it's available to all the potential users.
2. Choose Tools → Share Workbook to open the Share Workbook dialog box.
   The Share Workbook dialog box contains two tabs:
   • The Editing tab, which enables you to turn on file sharing and shows you all the users who have the file open
   • The Advanced tab, where you control how long changes are tracked and how updates are handled
3. On the Editing tab, select the Allow Changes by More Than One User at the Same Time check box.
4. To change the settings that affect how long a change log is maintained and how editing conflicts are handled, select the Advanced tab and use those options.
   By default, Excel maintains a Change History log for 30 days. If you wish, you can modify whether or not Excel maintains this Change History log at all (necessary if you want to reconcile and merge changes), or you can just change how long the program saves this log.
   You can also change when changes are updated, how conflicts are handled, and whether or not your print settings and data-filtering settings are shared. See the next section, "Setting your sharing options," for more on modifying these options.
5. Click OK to close the Share Workbook dialog box.
   An alert dialog box appears, indicating that Excel is about to save the workbook and asking you if you want to continue.
6. Click OK in the alert dialog box to save the workbook with the file-sharing settings.
   Upon closing the alert dialog box and saving the workbook, the [Shared] indicator is appended to the filename that appears in the title bar of the Excel program window.