Share excel as read-only with 1000+ users but they should see the real-time changes in the file

Hiras, Amit 1 Reputation point
2024-04-17T08:52:32.8766667+00:00

I have a requirement to share an Excel file as read-only with 1000+ users but they should see the real-time changes in the file, the file has macros that update data every second.

Want to know the best way to achieve this requirement it could be even outside of SharePoint as well.

Thanks in advance.

Amit

Excel
Excel
A family of Microsoft spreadsheet software with tools for analyzing, charting, and communicating data.
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SharePoint
SharePoint
A group of Microsoft Products and technologies used for sharing and managing content, knowledge, and applications.
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  1. Andrew Geddes 741 Reputation points
    2024-04-17T11:15:04.68+00:00

    Sharing an Excel file as read only with an audience has many paths... but the macro, that's where the complexity is. Here are a few approaches you could consider:

    Excel Online: Use Excel Online (part of Office 365) to share the file. It allows multiple users to view and interact with the file in real-time. However, Excel Online has limitations with macros, so you would need to ensure that the macros are compatible or find an alternative way to update the data.

    Power BI: Consider using Power BI to display the data. You can set up a data model that imports the data from your Excel file and then use Power BI's streaming datasets to update the data in real-time. Power BI dashboards can be shared with users, and they can view the real-time data without the ability to edit.

    SharePoint with Excel Web Access Web Part: If you're using SharePoint, you can add an Excel Web Access Web Part to a page to display the Excel file. This allows users to view the file in a browser. However, this also may not support all macro functionalities.

    Power Apps: Rebuild the process in Power Apps to meet the various requirements and eliminating the need for macros.

    Ideally, in this type of scenario is a good fork in the road to kill a macro based excel process. If it's a must there's no way around it, but we should always be working to move away from these types of approaches and move into power platform to some degree. Doing so drastically lowers risk and organizational complexity.