Secure Spreadsheets

Hi all who have helped me in the past -

I love this site - I just wish that I was knowledgeable enough to actually answer a question for someone or Post a Tutorial - until I am I will just have to keep asking questions until I have learned.............

Thanks again for all who have helped me in the past---

I have a business that deals with eCommerce (Marketing and Promotion) and part of a new contract I have written up is that it will be my responsibility to organize the accounting and balance sheets for the internet side of the joint venture. What I want to do is set up MS excell so that when new data is entered on my computer it will update on a clients computer as well.
I am sure that setting up networks is not the proper or most secure way to go about it - and the only other thing I can think of is FTP. (which I know there are a few fine Tuts on Antionline about). I am very inexperienced with FTP. Are there other suggestions as to going about setting up a 'shared spreadsheet', and if FTP is the best way what are some security precautions I need to account for in the initial stages of setup?

Thanks again to all who offer input - it is always appreciated

I dunno exactly how to go about the "automatic" way your describing, but do you want your client's to be able to access it whenever they want? If so, there are quite a number of way's (ftp included, probably be a good idea). But is that what your talking about? Sorry, I'm a tad confused.

You are talking about dynamic data on an excel spreadsheet, arent you?
Excel can recover data from several data source "automatically".
However, MS (on this case) doesnt have a good security structure for your need.
And you are crossing boundaries thru Internet, i dont think that will be a good idea.
Sugestion:
Publish your excel on a web page, on a well protected web server. Your clients will be able to see data (if authorized) and they can copy the excel spreadsheet if they want.

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Sugestion:
Publish your excel on a web page, on a well protected web server. Your clients will be able to see data (if authorized) and they can copy the excel spreadsheet if they want.

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I was thinking that as well, but I thought he meant a spreadsheet for each individual client? Not sure though, that's why I said I was confused.

Why not just email the spreadsheet when updated or on a regular schedule?

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Originally posted here by ss2chef
Why not just email the spreadsheet when updated or on a regular schedule?

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yeap... best solution is usually the simplest one....:)

Would you like your employees to be able to access, from a Web page, sales data for their territories compared to sales data for other employees? Or how about a spreadsheet for standard cost calculation? Or maybe you want to use a Web page to show the profits in different areas of your company in a chart.

You can save a Microsoft Excel workbook or part of the workbook, such as a single item on the worksheet, as a Web page and make it available on an HTTP (HTTP: Internet protocol that delivers information on the World Wide Web. Makes it possible for a user with a client program to enter a URL (or click a hyperlink) and retrieve text, graphics, sound, and other digital information from a Web server.) site, an FTP (FTP: A communication protocol that makes it possible for a user to transfer files between remote locations on a network. This protocol also allows users to use FTP commands, such as listing files and folders, to work with files on a remote location.) site, a Web server (Web server: A computer that hosts Web pages and responds to requests from browsers. Also known as an HTTP server, a Web server stores files whose URLs begin with http://.), or a network server for users to view or interact with. For example, if you have sales figures set up on an Excel worksheet, you can publish the figures along with a chart to compare figures on a Web page, so that users can view or even work with the numbers in their browsers without having to open Excel.

Here are some of the different ways you can share Excel data on the Web.

Put an entire workbook on a Web page

If you want to put all of the data in a workbook onto a Web page at one time, you can put an interactive or noninteractive version of an entire workbook on a Web page.

Interactive workooks

When you publish an interactive workbook on a Web page, the result is an HTML (HTML: The standard markup language used for documents on the World Wide Web. HTML uses tags to indicate how Web browsers should display page elements such as text and graphics and how to respond to user actions.) file that contains special components that allow browser users to interact with the workbook. For example, users can switch between sheets using a sheet selector, manipulate data and formatting, and change formulas in each sheet. The interactive components used in the HTML file cannot be opened and modified in Excel, so you should maintain a master copy of the Excel workbook from which you published so that you can make changes to it and republish the workbook if necessary.

Noninteractive workbooks

When you save a noninteractive workbook, the data appears as it would in Excel, including tabs that users can click to switch between worksheets. However, users cannot change or interact with the data in the browser. Saving an entire workbook as an HTML page is beneficial when you don't want to maintain a master copy of the Excel workbook, but rather want to be able to open the resulting HTML file directly in Excel and make and save changes using Excel features and functionality.



Put a worksheet, range of cells, or other item on a sheet on a Web page

You can publish a spreadsheet or portions of a spreadsheet on a Web page either with or without interactive functionality.

When you publish without interactivity, users can view the data and formatting on the Web page, but not manipulate data or formatting.

If you want users to be able to manipulate data on your Web page, you can create a Web page from a Microsoft Excel worksheet or items from the worksheet by saving the data with spreadsheet functionality. When you publish interactively with spreadsheet functionality, users can do the following:

Enter data
Format data
Calculate data
Analyze data
Sort and filter


In interactive Web pages, users can change the data and layout of Web page items.

You can put the following on a Web page with spreadsheet functionality:

Worksheets
PivotTable reports (PivotTable report: An interactive, crosstabulated Excel report that summarizes and analyzes data, such as database records, from various sources, including ones that are external to Excel.)
External data ranges (external data range: A range of data that is brought into a worksheet but that originates outside of Excel, such as in a database or text file. In Excel, you can format the data or use it in calculations as you would any other data.)
Ranges of cells
Filtered lists
Print areas
You might lose some formatting and features when you save with interactive functionality.

Put a chart on a Web page

You can publish a chart with or without interactivity. When you publish without interactivity, an image of the chart in a picture format (.jpg) is saved and displayed on the Web page.

If you want to put an interactive chart or PivotChart report (PivotChart report: A chart that provides interactive analysis of data, like a PivotTable report. You can change views of data, see different levels of detail, or reorganize the chart layout by dragging fields and by showing or hiding items in fields.) on a Web page, you can save the chart with interactive chart functionality.



When you change the chart's corresponding data on the Web page, the chart is updated automatically.

To create a chart with interactive functionality, you must first have a chart or a PivotChart report in Excel. When you publish that chart interactively, Excel automatically includes the source data for the chart on the Web page. For a chart, Excel includes an interactive spreadsheet control. For a PivotChart report, Excel includes an interactive PivotTable list (PivotTable list: A Microsoft Office Web Component that allows you to create a structure similar to an Excel PivotTable report. Users can view the PivotTable list in a Web browser and change its layout in a manner similar to an Excel PivotTable report.).

When users change the data in the spreadsheet or change the layout of the PivotTable list on the Web page, the corresponding chart is updated automatically. Users can also sort and filter the chart.

If you want to change the size of the chart on the Web page, you can open the Web page in either Microsoft FrontPage or data access page Design view (data access page Design view: A window in Access in which you design data access pages, Web pages with connections to databases.) in Microsoft Access and make the changes there.

Put a PivotTable Report on a Web page

A PivotTable report (PivotTable report: An interactive, crosstabulated Excel report that summarizes and analyzes data, such as database records, from various sources, including ones that are external to Excel.) is an interactive table in Excel that you can use to quickly summarize large amounts of data. Use PivotTable reports when you want to compare related totals or when you want Excel to do the sorting, subtotaling, and totaling for you.

You can publish a PivotTable Report with or without interactivity. When you publish without interactivity, users can view the report but cannot make changes to the table such as dragging fields or changing the types of summaries used, as can be done in Excel.



In a PivotTable list on a Web page, you can analyze data by changing the layout.

If you want your Web users to be able to interact with a PivotTable report or if you want to publish an external data range (external data range: A range of data that is brought into a worksheet but that originates outside of Excel, such as in a database or text file. In Excel, you can format the data or use it in calculations as you would any other data.) that you can refresh, you can put an interactive PivotTable list (PivotTable list: A Microsoft Office Web Component that allows you to create a structure similar to an Excel PivotTable report. Users can view the PivotTable list in a Web browser and change its layout in a manner similar to an Excel PivotTable report.) on a Web page. (The Web version of an interactive PivotTable report is called a PivotTable list.) When you publish interactively with PivotTable functionality, users can filter the data in the resulting PivotTable list, analyze the data by getting different views of it, and refresh external data in the browser.

Source data for PivotTable lists You can create an interactive PivotTable list from an existing PivotTable report or from other Excel data. If you use other Excel data and select PivotTable functionality in the Publish dialog box, Excel creates a PivotTable list on the Web page for you.

If you want users to be able to update an external data range on your Web page, you must specify PivotTable functionality to publish the external data range to a PivotTable list. The data is updated automatically from the source database when users open your Web page in the browser or when users click Refresh in the PivotTable list.

Limitations to consider You might lose some formatting and features when you save with interactive functionality.

Put several items on a Web page

Most Web pages that you create will contain more than one item. For example, you might have a Web page that contains your logo, text, a PivotTable list (PivotTable list: A Microsoft Office Web Component that allows you to create a structure similar to an Excel PivotTable report. Users can view the PivotTable list in a Web browser and change its layout in a manner similar to an Excel PivotTable report.), a list of noninteractive data, and a chart. The advantage of putting several items on a single page is that users need to look on only one Web page for all of the information they need.



You can make parts of your Web page interactive and other parts noninteractive.

You can use features from several Microsoft Office programs to create one Web page. For example, you can save data as a Web page in Excel and then use Microsoft Access to add grouped data page controls or scripting. Then, you can open the Web page in Microsoft FrontPage and add themes to make your Web page look consistent with other pages in your site.

You can use any combination of interactive and noninteractive data, and data from any Office program. For example, you can use Access to get employee names, titles, and salaries from an employee database. Then, you can analyze the Access data in Excel. In Excel, you can add formulas that calculate the average salary per job title and create a chart. Save the analysis as an interactive spreadsheet or PivotTable list on a Web page. Then, use FrontPage to add a company logo and description of the data on the page.
I just copied this from help in exel. Thought it maybe of some use to you

Just a few questions before I make a prat of myself :D

1. What versions of M$ Office are involved?
2. What refresh rates are we looking at.........a realtime system perhaps?
3. Have you considered other solutions like SQLDB or ACCESS................you can link these to an excel front end?
4. How many Users (1) in total, (2) at one time?
5. What operating system range are we talking about? ( 95/98/98se/me/nt4...)


Those will do for the moment.................then maybe I go and play...............these are the "games" that I like
:D

Cheers