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Adam Valente's avatar
Adam Valente
Copper Contributor
Nov 08, 2018

SharePoint - Excel Collaboration - Read Only - Filters

Our business has like many a need to collaborate within Excel.

Like many, the option to use a shared spreadsheet over a network immediately runs into performance issues in practice so that's not an option.

 

Currently we're sending out versions of the same spreadsheet over email many times and then consolidating again once complete. Ye olde worlde practices that need remedy to save on resource.

 

My suggestion was that was use SharePoint to collaborate. On the surface its a great option for many reasons but we quickly ran into issues:

 

  1. Filtering a live document means filtering for everyone.
  2. When someone makes a mistake despite having versions of the document its not that easy to backtrack and discover who made the mistake.

So the business asked me to discover a means of being able to avoid havoc when users want to use basic excel features such as filter and sort, and not sacrifice the same spreadsheet when someone makes a mistake. All this without giving staff a long process to follow with room to make mistakes along the way.

 

*deep breath*

 

So my thought was to share the original file was view only, sharing the link over email which forces the user to 'Save As' and give the file an alternative name. This means the admin can pick all the different files up from the same location and not have to share files over email.

 

Problem here is the read only file doesn't give the user a simple 'Save as' option, the menu ribbon is lost and the simple process vanishes out the window. No matter if I 'Grant Access' or share the file the result is the same.

 

Any idea's on the best way to sold this conundrum?

 

Thanks,

 

Adam

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4 Replies

  • Doug Allen's avatar
    Doug Allen
    Iron Contributor
    Nov 11, 2018

    Adam,

     

    What's the size and complexity of this Excel?  You say it has performance issues, but Excel Online/Excel 2016 with files stored in OneDrive or SharePoint Online support co-authoring.  That is usually the preferred method but there are basic requirements to make that work properly (version, file format, etc).  

     

    If that isn't an option, typically you could look to convert the XLS to a SharePoint modern list.  If you need to show totals and such it might need to be a classic list, but for simplistic needs that might work.  Or with the original XLS, you could just enforce checkout which basically defeats the purpose of co-authoring but provides the user a dialog to save as but it's still not ideal.  Are users have poor connection to the internet with these files?  

    • Adam Valente's avatar
      Adam Valente
      Copper Contributor
      Nov 12, 2018

      Hi Doug,

       

      Thanks for your response. My problem with performance is within excel and local files with the sharing turned on. Historically it's always been the same; you get more than 2 users in the sheet at any one time and the whole thing grinds to a painful halt. Complexity; not very. Pretty basic in terms of excel features with a filter, several columns, but the file size is about 35mb.

       

      We are trying SharePoint for this but like I say the 'live' edits make it chaotic when the filter or sort is used. To say to the 81 users you cannot use these features isn't an option.

       

      I'll take a look at the modern/classic lists and see how they work for me. Thanks for the advice.

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