Interactive Spreadsheet?

[Dougal Rendarck]

Ok, so my boss requested an Excel spreadsheet broken down into three sheets: one master, and one for each of the two sites we are working on. I was able to accomplish that with a great deal of work using forumlas and other tricks school really should teach students...

Anyway, I was wondering if there was a way all of the project managers could be able to all access at a minimum their campus site sheet on the workbook and update it, even though they would be at different locations miles apart, and for the project executive to be able to view the master.

Would this require a website? Or is it possible through some of the other microsoft programs?

Thank you for your time and any help you can lend!

[Richard Buttrey]

Ok, so my boss requested an Excel spreadsheet broken down into three sheets: one master, and one for each of the two sites we are working on. I was able to accomplish that with a great deal of work using forumlas and other tricks school really should teach students...

Anyway, I was wondering if there was a way all of the project managers could be able to all access at a minimum their campus site sheet on the workbook and update it, even though they would be at different locations miles apart, and for the project executive to be able to view the master.

Would this require a website? Or is it possible through some of the other microsoft programs?

Thank you for your time and any help you can lend!

Are are the locations networked to your main site where the data is held? If so you'd be better using a relational database like Microsoft Access. The principal advantage is that it is a multi-user system, which means several people can be updating it at the same time.

Excel is essentially a single user system. That doesn't mean that several users can't open the same file at the same time, but generally speaking only the first one to open the file can make and save changes. Excel does have the ability to do what they call 'sharing' a workbook, but you still have to reconcile any conflicts where people want to change the same data.

If you're not networked then your next best option is to allow sites to have their own standard xl templates which they forward to you, and you then arrange for macros in the main workbook to upload these and put the data in the appropriate place.

If you do it this way I'd be inclined to arrange it so that as you load the supporting workbooks you build up a simple flat two dimensional database containing all the data rows, rather than just keeping the original template sheets. Keep these as well if you want all the wizzy formatting stuff with colours and borders etc., but don't rely on these if you're going to need any sort of overall master summary analysis.

HTH