Collaborate on Excel Spreadsheets Online With eXpresso

By Geoff Spick | Published Jun 30, 2009

Collaborate on Excel Spreadsheets Online With eXpresso eXpresso Corp (news, site) offers a way to make collaborating online using Excel files less of a hassle, improving productivity and awareness when sharing data.

Start spreading the sheets

If your organization lacks the tools to work with a single spreadsheet among multiple users, eXpresso has been an option for a couple of years now. However, its latest update offers a wide range of improvements for a comprehensive way to share those vital cells and numbers.

By making a version of the spreadsheet available in the cloud, all of Excel's features can be used by any number of users with access to the file, in real time.

Currently eXpresso is only compatible with Internet Explorer 6.0 or later, although you can use IE Tab to get the service to run under Firefox. However, Safari and Opera users are right out of luck.

Installing eXpresso requires just a couple of quick steps

Installation requires you to install an IE toolbar and then allow an ActiveX control to run. Then, you can upload files to the server, or access files that others have made available. Other users can be invited to edit files or view them as read only.

It is compatible with Excel files from Office 2000 or later, although Office 2007 files must be saved in the 97-2003 format. When editing a document in Internet Explorer, you see all the familiar menus with green eXpresso menus at the top, these help manage the files and your contacts.

It looks just like Excel, largely because it is

Users can chat or leave notes attached to each edited document, useful for monitoring workflow and assignments. If a user has been out of the loop for some time, they can look at the file history reports and set up cell trackers that will let them know when an important cell has been altered.

Keep a living record of events and interactions

Excel, Anywhere

If you need to work in Excel then there is an add-in to allow you to work with the online files. For example, one thing you can't do is add new tabs in the online version. So by dropping out into Excel, you can add those and then return immediately to the online version.

A 14-day free trial allows users to explore the options and it can also be used to invite non-registered users to view your spreadsheets online.

Registration costs start at US$ 15 per month (or US$ 79 for an annual subscription) for a single user with reduced pricing for larger groups. While you could go the Google Docs or similar route, this is ideal for those who demand or require full .xls compatibility and access to the feature set.