Chapter 30: Using Excel in a Workgroup

Updating changes

While you’re working on a shared workbook, you can choose File Save to update the workbook with your changes. The Update Changes settings determine what happens when you save a shared workbook:

•When File Is Saved: You receive updates from other users when you save your copy of the shared workbook.

•Automatically Every: Lets you specify a time period for receiving updates from other users of the workbook. You can also specify whether Excel should save your changes automatically, too, or just show you the changes made by other users.

Resolving conflicting changes between users

As you may expect, multiple users working on the same file can result in some conflicts. For example, assume that you’re working on a shared customer information workbook, and another user also has the workbook open. If you and the other user both make a change to the same cell, a conflict occurs. You can specify the manner in which Excel resolves the conflicts by selecting one of two options from the Advanced tab of the Share Workbook dialog box:

•Ask Me Which Changes Win: If you select this option, Excel displays a dialog box to let you determine how to settle the conflict.

•The Changes Being Saved Win: If you select this option, the most recently saved version always takes precedence.

Caution

The second option, The Changes Being Saved Win, has slightly deceptive wording. Even if the other user saves his changes, any changes you make will automatically override his changes when you save the workbook. This option may result in a loss of data because you won’t have any warning that you’ve overwritten another user’s changes. n

Controlling the Include in Personal View settings

The final section of the Advanced tab of the Share Workbook dialog box enables you to specify settings that are specific to your view of the shared workbook. You can choose to use your own print settings and your own data-filtering settings. If you don’t enable these check boxes, you can’t save your own print and filter settings.

Tracking Workbook Changes

Excel has a feature that enables you to track changes made to a workbook. You may want to use this feature if you send a workbook to someone for reviewing. When the file is returned, you can see what changes were made and then accept or reject them accordingly.

Turning Track Changes on and off

To enable change tracking, choose Review Changes Track Changes Highlight Changes, which displays the Highlight Changes dialog box, shown in Figure 30.5. Then select the Track Changes While Editing check box.

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FIGURE 30.5

Use the Highlight Changes dialog box to track changes made to a workbook.

You can also specify the period to track (When), which users to track (Who), and specify a range of cells to track (Where). If you enable the Highlight Changes on Screen option, each changed cell displays a small triangle in its upper-left corner. And when a changed cell is selected, you see a cell comment that describes what change was made (see Figure 30.6).

After you select the option(s) that you want, click OK to close the Highlight Changes dialog box and enable tracking. To stop tracking changes, choose Review Changes Track Changes Highlight Changes again, and then clear the Track Changes While Editing check box.

Caution

When tracking changes is enabled, the workbook always becomes a shared workbook, which severely limits the types of changes you can make. Shared workbooks are discussed earlier in this chapter (see “Sharing Workbooks”). n

FIGURE 30.6

Excel displays a descriptive note when you select a cell that has changed.

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Keep in mind the following when using the Track Changes feature:

•Changes made to cell contents are tracked, but other changes (such as formatting changes) aren’t tracked.

•The change history is kept only for a set interval. When you turn on Track Changes, changes are kept for 30 days. You can increase or decrease the number of days of history to keep in from Highlight Changes dialog box (use the When setting).

•If you would like to generate a list of the changes made, choose Review Changes Track Changes Highlight Changes and then enable the List Changes on a New Sheet check box. Click OK, and Excel inserts a new worksheet named History. This sheet shows detailed information about each change made.

•Only one level of changes is maintained. Thus, if you change the value of a cell several times, only the most recent change is remembered.

Reviewing the changes

To review the changes made while using the Track Changes features, choose Review Changes Track Changes Accept/Reject Changes. The Select Changes to Accept or Reject dialog box appears, enabling you to select the types of changes that you want to review. This dialog box is similar to the Highlight Changes dialog box. You can specify When, Who, and Where.

Click OK, and Excel displays each change in a new dialog box, as shown in Figure 30.7. You then click Accept to accept the change or click Reject to reject the change. You can also click Accept All (to accept all changes) or Reject All (to reject all changes).

FIGURE 30.7

The Accept or Reject Changes dialog box displays information about each cell that was changed.

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