Sharing workbooks in Excel - Real Business Scenario

Scenario Mode

👤 Your Role: You are an office administrator managing a team project.

📋 Request: Your manager wants you to share the project workbook with team members so everyone can update their parts simultaneously.

📊 Data: You have an Excel workbook with project tasks, assigned team members, deadlines, and status updates.

🎯 Deliverable: You need to prepare the workbook for sharing, enable simultaneous editing, and track changes made by team members.

Sample Data

Task ID	Task Name	Assigned To	Deadline	Status
1	Design Logo	Alice	2024-07-10	In Progress
2	Write Content	Bob	2024-07-15	Not Started
3	Develop Website	Charlie	2024-07-20	Not Started
4	Test Website	Diana	2024-07-25	Not Started
5	Launch Campaign	Eva	2024-07-30	Not Started

1

Step 1: Save the workbook to OneDrive or SharePoint to enable sharing.

Click File > Save As > Choose OneDrive or SharePoint location > Save

Expected Result

Workbook is saved online and ready for sharing.

2

Step 2: Share the workbook with team members by inviting them via email.

Click Share button on the top right > Enter team members' email addresses > Set permissions to 'Can edit' > Send invitation

Expected Result

Team members receive an email with a link to the shared workbook.

3

Step 3: Enable 'AutoSave' to allow real-time updates by all users.

Toggle AutoSave switch at the top left of Excel window to ON

Expected Result

Changes made by any user are saved automatically and visible to others immediately.

4

Step 4: Use 'Show Changes' to monitor edits made by team members.

Go to Review tab > Click Show Changes

Expected Result

Recent changes by each team member are displayed for review.

5

Step 5: Ask team members to open the shared workbook from the link and update their assigned tasks.

No formula; team members edit cells under 'Status' column for their tasks.

Expected Result

Status updates from team members appear in real-time in the shared workbook.

Final Result

Shared Workbook Dashboard

+---------+--------------+-------------+------------+-------------+
| Task ID | Task Name    | Assigned To | Deadline   | Status      |
+---------+--------------+-------------+------------+-------------+
| 1       | Design Logo  | Alice       | 2024-07-10 | Completed   |
| 2       | Write Content| Bob         | 2024-07-15 | In Progress |
| 3       | Develop Web. | Charlie     | 2024-07-20 | Not Started |
| 4       | Test Website | Diana       | 2024-07-25 | Not Started |
| 5       | Launch Camp. | Eva         | 2024-07-30 | Not Started |
+---------+--------------+-------------+------------+-------------+

Changes are tracked and visible to all team members.

✓Saving the workbook online enables easy sharing and collaboration.

✓AutoSave ensures all edits are saved and visible instantly.

✓Show Changes helps monitor who made what updates.

✓Team members can update their task status simultaneously without conflicts.

Bonus Challenge

Create a summary sheet that automatically counts how many tasks are 'Not Started', 'In Progress', and 'Completed' using formulas.

Show Hint

Use the COUNTIF function to count statuses in the 'Status' column.