DECEMBER 2017
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The Review Tab presents the best area where you can
work with others on the same Excel workbook. Two com-
mand groups within the Review Tab area allow you to
make comments within cells, protect the workbook or any
of the individual worksheets, share the work with others,
and even allow others to edit specific table ranges.
Collaboration Comments
One of the easiest ways to collaborate with others on
Excel workbooks is using comments. You can add new
comments by clicking on the New Comment section of
the Review Tab. You can easily scroll through all of the
comments by clicking on the Previous and Next menu
items in the Commands command group. You can also
delete unnecessary comments.
When the reviews are done you can "hide" or "re-
move" all comments for the final published version.
When you publish a final version, it is recommended
that you remove all comments within the workbook as
they reveal past decisions and may contain information
that you do not want to share.
Sharing Workbooks
Now that you and others are commenting on the work-
book contents, you can also share it with more people
through the Changes command group of the Review Tab.
Click on the Share Workbook icon.
The Share Workbook dialog box will open and allow
you to configure how you want to share. You can allow
multiple users to work on the same workbook at the
same time by checking the box in the Editing Tab. Under
the Advanced Tab you can specify how long you want to
track changes, how and when changes will be updated,
how to resolve change conflicts between users, and what
to include in your Personal View of the workbook.
Tracking Changes
Finally, during collaboration you can track others'
changes by using the Track Changes icon in the Changes
Command Group within the Review Tab. A Highlight
Changes dialog box will appear. You can select "filter
results criteria," where you can narrow down changes
by specific users, when changes were made, or where
changes were made. You can also specify whether to
highlight the change in the current workbook or open in
a new worksheet. When you click on the changed cell
you will see a dialog box with who made it, when, and
what was changed.
Continued on page 7
Improve Excel Workbooks by Collaboration
By Arnold Villeneuve
It is often said that "two heads are bet-
ter than one" or "many hands make
light work." Some people are better
at observing the details while others
are better at visualization. So how can
you leverage this powerful concept
of collaboration using Excel to create
more engaging workbooks? There are
several ways to do so.
