Excel Web Sharing: Internet and Web Spreadsheets

XLsharing for IIS

2006-03-12T14:30:00.000-08:00

If you're interested in running BadBlue Excel sharing features on IIS (not just its integrated server), they've just introduced XLsharing for IIS. This new product allows Microsoft's well-respected IIS web server to perform "live views" of Excel workbooks for browser-based sharing of spreadsheets.

Read more

Euro date support for version 2.68

2005-11-05T05:16:00.000-08:00

Yes, there is a new configuration setting in BadBlue 2.68 that lets you control European date format display and data-entry. To modify the date settings, click the Manage tab, then click Set preferences and P2P sharing options.

To view Excel dates in European format, change the "Euro date display" seting to "Yes".

To override the local server's data-entry mode, change the "Override month/day" setting to "Yes". Note that this step may not be necessary for servers that already have European date settings configured.

After changing either setting, press the Save Changes button. You will need to exit and restart the server to see these changes take effect.

BadBlue 2.66 Excel-Web Sharing Released

2005-10-01T05:43:00.000-07:00

The new version of BadBlue has been released, according to the web site. A couple of things worth noting about the new version: navigation through workbooks is faster and multiple home pages can be specified. The free download still lets you try all of the features, gratis. That's a pretty good deal, mate.

BadBlue goes WYSIWYG!

2005-05-19T18:48:00.000-07:00

The new version of BadBlue is out: 2.64. New in this version: WYSIWYG! Cell color, font size, font typeface, font color are all supported. Plus, optimized file uploads are reported as well.

The administrator can control whether or not WYSIWYG is used. For speed reasons, it may be faster in certain cases to forego formatting (say, in an intensive data-entry situation). See the Advanced Help for details.

Get the free download and check it out.

BadBlue 2.63 adds Excel Web Keyboard Navigation

2005-04-17T07:49:00.000-07:00

The new version of BadBlue is out: 2.63. It adds to the suite of Excel-Web sharing capabilities and also offers some better overall installation/uninstall support:

Excel keyboard navigation - users can now key through workbooks using the arrow keys, PgUp, PgDn, Home, End, etc. Much easier for those used to working with the keyboard.

Hotkey functionality - F, G, and I keys can be used to find/replace, goto and insert, respectively.

Current cell highlighting - the current cell is always highlighted, so you can easily see empty cells, which was somewhat difficult before.

Single-quote and plus-sign data-entry fixed - if you ever had problems entering single-quotes (e.g., "O'Reilly") or plus-signs before, those issues are addressed in v2.63.

Last, but not least:

New, improved Installer/Uninstaller - the installation program has been upgraded and now supports full uninstall from the Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs control center.

Get the free download or order Enterprise Edition today.

BadBlue adds Excel Web Charting Support!

2005-03-21T16:44:00.000-08:00

This is pretty cool. The new version of BadBlue (v2.62) just came out and it adds some wickety-whack (uhm, that means "kewl") new features:

Charts are supported! Yes, you heard that right, if you have charts in your workbooks, they'll publish right over the web automagically... and you can control the charts' appearance including size and resolution.

Navigation through workbooks is much, much easier: the navigation buttons now appears on the small, popup editor window so you can navigate without the click, button press, click button press, ... cycle. Much slicker and faster.

You can control how linked workbooks operate, meaning whether links are updated, which kinds of links update, etc.

The feature added a little while ago where the Manage and Help tabs don't appear for remote users (that is, normal users and not remote administrators) now works consistently in all folder exploring modes. I guess the tabs could show up sometimes when they weren't supposed to... but now that's been remedied.

Check it out... get the free download now because it has a free preview of all the Excel sharing features. Or just go ahead and order the Enterprise version if you want to get started on true Excel collaboration.

v2.61 of BadBlue Excel Web Collaboration Server

2005-02-20T09:16:00.000-08:00

Finally... the new version of BadBlue (version 2.61) is out with some features that were heavily requested.

* Remote users no longer see the Manage and Help tabs - there is a much cleaner look for external users. Only local users and remote administrators can see the management interface. See the User Security page for details!

* Excel freshness indicators available - if you have multiple users updating Excel workbooks using BadBlue's unique Excel web-sharing features, you can now provide "freshness indicators" to see which folders and files have been modified since your last visit. See the Excel sharing page for details!

* Enhancement in Excel web sharing access control: now cell-by-cell read- and write-restrictions for users incorporates support for tabbed workbooks. That is, each user can have a different security profile (ability to read or write different cells) for each tabbed workbook in an Excel file. See the Advanced Excel Sharing page for details!

* Faster performance for core web-serving capabilities. New security enhancements have allowed us to streamline the core user-interface web server logic while hardening the system against attacks.

Get the latest - visit the download center for Personal Edition v2.61 or the Product Page to order Enterprise Edition v2.61.

Breaking the spreadsheet habit?

2005-02-06T04:37:00.000-08:00

Back in 1991, the AICPA released a survey that showed that Lotus 1-2-3, then the spreadsheet of choice. It was also the top database, graphics package, and budgeting tool in the CPA community.

Change the words "1-2-3" to Microsoft Excel and you'd probably get a similar result today...

WebCPA: Breaking the spreadsheet habit?

Automatic real-time publishing of Excel via the Web

2005-02-03T19:08:00.000-08:00

I saw that BadBlue version 2.6 was announced a couple of weeks ago and there is one new feature, in particular, that looks pretty neat. A real-time refresh lets a user monitor one or more workbooks in a browser, which are re-displayed automatically. This is useful in situations where some data is derived from other sources or updated by other users.

Now users can make sure they're viewing the latest up-to-date information all the time. Without any programming or complicated setup.

New features in BadBlue 2.6

Good overview of Excel-Web sharing

2004-12-19T19:25:00.000-08:00

See this description of Excel-to-web sharing features and how the various vendors differ.

Version 2.55 of BadBlue Excel Web Server

2004-12-12T17:00:00.000-08:00

I just received this from the (BadBlue) QA people. The new versions of Enterprise Edition -- and the free Personal Edition -- have been released and are available. The details are:

BadBlue Personal Edition version 2.55 is now available at the download center:

This version provides the following enhancements:

1) Certain browsers were incompatible with the Upload capability and script POST operations under certain conditions; these issues have been addressed in version 2.55
2) Excel-web sharing data-entry now handles an unlimited number of change operations before the "Save Changes" button is pressed
3) Excel-web sharing data-entry handles quote characters more gracefully
4) Remote administrators may now view real-time download history and status
5) Excel-web sharing now supports a "frozen row" header feature, which allows you to freeze a row even if you scroll left or right (to help you navigate - see this page for details).

Enterprise Edition will be available within the next few business days. For registered Enterprise Edition customers, please email who desire a free upgrade, please email your order-number and order-date to support@badblue.com with a subject heading of "Auto Upgrade".

Excel web sharing download

2004-10-20T19:19:00.000-07:00

Another tool to share perform Excel web sharing: Easy File Sharing Server.

AccountingPage

2004-09-30T15:05:00.000-07:00

Looking for an excellent resource for accounting products and services?

Accounting Page is a masterfully done compendium of accounting-related information (and is, by the way, one of the prettiest sites we've seen!). BadBlue Excel-to-web functionality is a featured resource.

New version 2.52 introduced

2004-07-25T08:55:00.000-07:00

BadBlue's web Excel features have been upgraded in Enterprise Edition version 2.52 (just released).

Here are some links of interest regarding version 2.52 and webifying Excel:

Tutorial - new features
Advanced usage - 2.52 additions

And don't tell anyone, but here's a $10 off coupon for BadBlue Enterprise Edition that still seems to work. Just type in the following code when asked if you have any coupons: D1RFCB180009.

The order form is here: Popup order form.

Can't stop... won't stop... (using Excel)

2004-07-10T09:04:00.000-07:00

BadBlue has introduced another product for sharing Excel spreadsheets over the web. This one is targeted for:

Users who won't give up Excel!
You know who you are! Basically, XLmerge is a kind of version control system for Excel spreadsheets. It's basically a "smart" web server. Users download spreadsheets (and multiple users in different locations can work on the same file at the same time). After they're finished making changes, they upload the spreadsheets back to the server. The system merges their changes -- subject to various security restrictions -- so that the master copy of the file is always secure.

Like their other products, there is the full range of audit logging, cell-by-cell update restrictions and so on. But this solution encompasses the users who can't (or won't) stop using their favorite power-tool: Excel.

BadBlue XLmerge - don't give up Excel to webify

Excel 2003 Bible

2004-07-10T08:57:00.000-07:00

John Walkenbach's Excel 2003 Bible is considered the ultimate resource for Excel power-users. Walkenback has been working with Excel since its inception (I remember him from the early days) and his web site is an excellent resource for information.

BadBlue's new Excel sharing features

2004-07-10T08:36:00.000-07:00

BadBlue has had browser-based sharing of Excel spreadsheets for a while now. But a new version has completely revamped the user-interface, added cell-level security, audit logging, and a host of other new features.

From the site:

Looking for an easy, secure way to share Excel spreadsheets over the web or even a local area network (LAN)? Using nothing more than a browser, you can now leverage Excel in ways you never thought possible. And you can do it without hiring expensive consultants, without programming, and without any hassle. BadBlue's new Excel Sharing features include:

Instantly share spreadsheets over the web - no programming and minimal setup

Password-protection - protect your spreadsheets with login-names and passwords

Update multiple cells at a time - a much easier user-interface

Multi-user conflict resolution - when two users change the same cell

Complete auditing and logging - you can track every change to your spreadsheets

Grid read protection by user - you can restrict which users can see which cells

Grid write protection by user - you can restrict which users can update which cells

BadBlue Enterprise Edition and Excel Web Sharing

Welcome!

2004-07-10T08:24:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Excel-to-Web blog, where we'll be highlighting the most interesting technologies related to moving your Excel spreadsheets to the web. Microsoft reports that over 300 million copies of Excel have been distributed. And that means, to us, there are many opportunities for IT staff, VAR's, integrators and others to move spreadsheets to the web... without losing the benefit of the business logic accumulated in those files.

So, again, welcome - and we'll be profiling technologies, users and related areas in and around the Excel webification space!