How to Create an Excel Spreadsheet Online to Share Using Google Docs

Microsoft Excel is a useful spreadsheet application that can help small businesses manage inventory, payroll, sales, presentations, projects and goals. Oftentimes in business, large tasks are broken down into smaller tasks that can be accomplished by individual employees. To ensure that everyone is doing their part or to allow collaboration and sharing of information, you can share excel spreadsheets and other documents online using Google Docs, which is a free office suite program.

How to Create an Excel Spreadsheet Online to Share Using Google Docs

Create a Google account, if you do not already have one, and sign in to Google Docs. Upload an existing spreadsheet to share online or select "Create New" to create a new spreadsheet. You can also click on "From Template," which will bring up thousands of free document, spreadsheet, form and presentation templates for Google Docs.

Begin populating your spreadsheet, if applicable, and save the document. Otherwise, simply save the blank document. You must do this before you can invite employees to view the shared spreadsheet online.

Click on "Share" to begin inviting employees. While you can invite employees who do not have a Google account to access the documents, requiring employees to establish an account may provide more security. Click "Invite people" to invite employees who will need to sign in. Click on "Get the link to share" for those who will not. In the "Share with Others" box that comes up after selecting "Invite people," select whether to allow the user to edit or simply view the document under the "Invite People" tab. Under the "People with access" tab, determine whether or not they need to sign in. Again, for security reasons, it's a good idea to require sign in. Under the "Advanced Permissions" tab, you can allow other editors to invite users.

If you have a variety of projects or you don't want employees to have access to all of the projects or documents, you can create different folders and give different access.

Populate your spreadsheet. Once you and your employees are satisfied with the changes, you can save and close the document. Doing so will save it to Google Docs. If the file is complete and you want to save it to your document, click on "File" and then "Download As" and then select the extension with which to save the document. You can also easily publish completed Google Doc documents online as a webpage or blog post.

If you need to revert back to previous revisions, simply click on "File" and then "See revision history."