Here's What to Do Before Sharing an Excel Spreadsheet

Here's what to do when sharing an Excel spreadsheet.

Delete unnecessary data in Excel table

Before sharing an Excel spreadsheet, you should rearrange the content and delete unnecessary data, delete duplicate entries in Excel. Formatting also needs to be checked to see if consistent fonts and font sizes are used.

Check Excel spreadsheet for errors

Check all the formulas in the spreadsheet or the formats used in Excel to make sure that nothing is giving incorrect results or that there are still errors in Excel. If the error is reported from the Excel system, you need to check what the error message is to find a way to fix it.

Set password for Excel spreadsheet

Setting a password for an Excel spreadsheet helps you control who can access and make changes to the document. We can set a password for the entire Excel spreadsheet or for the worksheet, content area,.

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Add instructions when sharing Excel

Before sharing your Excel spreadsheet publicly, you can add some specific instructions in the table to give recipients more information. For example, you can clearly mark where users need to enter data, color the location, use comments in Excel or notes in Excel to support the content that needs attention.

Make a copy of Excel file

Creating a copy of your Excel file before sharing ensures that you still have the original spreadsheet content if someone accidentally corrupts it, or enters incorrect data. Additionally, when making new changes, you can use the backup instead of tampering with the original file. We recommend creating a backup of your Excel file in a different location than your original to avoid confusion.

Adjust Excel spreadsheet sharing settings

Before sharing any Excel file, you need to adjust the sharing settings to ensure that only the recipients of the file can access the file with the appropriate permission level. If you want others to view the file, set the permission to view only. If you want them to be able to make changes, set it to edit.

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Optimize Excel files when printing

Before sharing, test your Excel document in print mode to see if it has enough content within the print page size. You can use page breaks to ensure that your data is not affected if you accidentally break pages.

Check Excel file format and size

If you only want the recipient to view the file, convert the Excel file to PDF to preserve the content. Or keep the file in its original format (XLSX) if the recipient needs the file in its original format. Also ask the recipient what version of Office they are using to avoid file format incompatibility.

If the file size is large, compress and resize images or graphics, delete unused worksheets, or save the file in a compressed format to reduce the size. If the file size does not reduce significantly, upload the file to a cloud storage service and share the file link.

David Pac

Update 11 September 2024