Procedure Involved in Sharing Excel Workbook

Errors in Excel Share Workbook

When we choose the option “Share Workbook,” it often shows the error message. The reason behind this is some settings in Excel.

  • First, we need to decide which workbook we want to share, so open that Excel workbook first. Then, we must go to the “Review” tab and click on the “Share Workbook (Legacy)” option in Excel in that workbook. As soon as we click on the “Share Workbook (Legacy),” it will show us the below dialog box. Below the window, we have two tabs, “Editing” and “Advanced,” under the “Editing” option. Next, select the checkbox “Use the old shared workbooks feature instead of the new co-authoring experience.” Under the “Editing” tab, that was the only option we had. Now choose the “Advanced” tab. Under the “Advanced” tab, we can “Track Changes,” “Update Changes,” “Conflicting changes between users,” etc. After all the settings we have done in the above window, we must upload the file to a network location like Dropbox from where they can access the workbook. Then, we must send the link or give the user ID password. After that, we can send the workbook’s stored link to the concerned person.

Follow the below steps to change settings.

Go to “File” »> “Options” »> “Trust Center” »> “Trust Centre Settings” »> uncheck “Remove personal information from file properties on save.”

Excel Share Workbook but Also Protect Changes Tracking

Sharing a workbook is not the only feature available. Rather, we also can foresee the changes of other users. To apply this change, we must unshare the workbook before making any changes.

To check users’ changes and have control, we must follow the below steps.

  • Step 1:  We must first go to the “Review” tab.Step 2: Next to “Share Workbook,” we have the “Protect and Share Workbook (Legacy)” option. Click on that option.

  • Step 3: Once we click on the “Protect and Share Workbook (Legacy),” we can see below the dialog box. Under “Password (optional),” we must insert the password as per wish and remember it!

  • Step 4: Password is not the mandatory option. However, it is always good to enter the password and share the workbook to control the changes.

Protect Sheet vs. Protect Shared Workbook

We can see two types of protection with excel, i.e., “Protect Sheet in ExcelProtect Sheet In ExcelWhen we don’t want any other user to make changes to our worksheet, we can use the Protect worksheet feature in Excel. It can be found in Excel’s Review tab. read more” and “Protect Shared Workbook.” Do not get confused with these two options. These two are not the same. Below are the differences between these two:

  • “Protect Sheet” is protecting the worksheet, not the workbook.“Protect Shared Workbook” means we are not allowing the user the option of change tracking of the shared workbook.

Un-Share & Remove Users From Shared Workbooks

We can also unshare and remove particular users from the shared workbook.

To unshare the workbook, we need to uncheck the option of “Use the old shared workbooks feature instead of the new co-authoring experience.”

If we wish to remove users, we must select the user and check the “Remove User” button, as shown below.

Consequently, it will remove the selected user from this workbook.

Things to Remember

  • We need to protect the shared workbook and share to track changes option.“Protect Worksheet” and “Protect Shared Workbooks” are not the same.

This article is a step-by-step guide to Excel Shared Workbook. Here, we provide a step-by-step guide to sharing files in Excel and examples and explanations. You may learn more about Excel from the following articles: –

  • 5 Types of Excel Auditing ToolsUnprotect Workbook in ExcelWhat is Power Query in Excel?How to Protect Workbook in Excel?Apple Numbers vs. Excel