The concept of publishing Excel spreadsheet data on the World Wide Web makes a heck of a lot of sense, both from the standpoint of the worksheet's tabular layout and the worksheet's calculated contents. As anyone who's tried to code an HTML (HyperText Markup Language) table will tell you, this is one of the nastiest jobs a person can perform. Even creating the simplest HTML table is a pain because you have to use <TH> and </TH> tags to set up the column headings in the table along with <TR> and </TR> tags to set up the rows of the table, and <TD> and </TD> tags to define the number and width of the columns — as well as what data goes in each cell of the table.
Excel enables you to create Web pages that display your worksheet data in either a static, look-but-don't-touch mode, or an interactive, let's-have-some-fun mode. When you create a Web page with static worksheet data, your users can view the Excel data only with their Web browsers. When you create a Web page with interactive worksheet data, however, your users can continue to play around with the data by editing and formatting its values. Depending upon the nature of the spreadsheet, your users can even continue to perform calculations and, in cases of data lists, manipulate the data by sorting and filtering it.
To create a static Web page, you follow these general steps:
1. Open the workbook with the data to be saved as a Web page.
2. (Optional) When saving something less than the entire workbook or entire current worksheet, select the item of cells. If you're inserting a chart, click the chart. If you're inserting a range of cells, select the range.
If you know that you want to save a particular chart or particular range of cells of a worksheet in the new Web page, you should select the chart to be saved before you open the Save As dialog box (see Step 3). Selecting the chart ahead of time changes the Selection: Sheet radio button to the Selection: Chart radio button. In the case of a cell range selection, the Selection: Sheet radio button changes to a Selection: radio button followed by the address of the cells selected.
3. Choose File-->Save as Web Page from the menu bar to open the Save As dialog box.
4. Indicate which part of the workbook is to be saved in the new Web page.
To save the contents of all sheets in the workbook, make sure that the Entire Workbook radio button is selected. To save only the data in the current worksheet, choose the Selection: Sheet radio button instead. Note: If you clicked the chart in the worksheet that you intend to convert into a Web page graphic before opening the Save As dialog box, you need to choose the Selection: Chart radio button (which replaces the Selection: Sheet button). If you selected a cell range, you need to choose the Selection: radio button followed by the address of the selected cell range.
To save the contents of a worksheet other than the one currently selected, click the Publish button and then choose the sheet by its description from the Choose drop-down list box.
To save a chart that you didn't select prior to opening the Save As dialog box, click the Publish button and then select the chart (identified by its description) from the Choose drop-down list.
To save a specific range of cells that you didn't select prior to opening the Save As dialog box, click the Publish button. Then, select Range of Cells from the Choose drop-down list before you type the range address in the text box immediately below or enter it by selecting the range of cells by highlighting them in the worksheet.
5. Specify a filename for the new Web page.
Enter the name for the new Web page in the File Name text box. Note that Excel appends the filename extension .htm (which stands for HyperText Markup, indicating that this is an HTML text file) to whatever filename you enter in this text box. If you plan to publish the Web page on a UNIX Web server, keep in mind that this operating system is sensitive to uppercase and lowercase letters in the filename. (The Macintosh and Windows operating system are both case-blind when it comes to filenames.)
6. Designate the location where the Web page is to be saved.
When saving the new Web page on your computer's hard drive or even a network drive, you need to indicate the drive and directory in the Save In text box just as you do when saving a regular Excel workbook file. To save the page to a folder:
To save the new Web page directly on your company's Internet or intranet Web site, click the Web Folders button and then open the folder in which you want the page saved.
To save the new page on an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) site that your Web administrator or favorite IT person has set up, select FTP Locations from the Save In drop-down list box and then open the FTP folder in which you want the page saved.
In both cases, you (or a qualified Web-head) must have already set up the Web folders or FTP locations before you can save your worksheet Web pages there.
7. (Optional) Specify a title for the Web page.
If you want Excel to add a title (which appears centered at the top of the page before any of the data or charts), click the Change Title button in the Save As dialog box. Type the text for the title in the Set Page Title dialog box and click OK. Note that you can also add or edit a title with the Change Title button in the Publish as Web Page dialog box (which you open by clicking the Publish button in the Save As dialog box).
8. Save the Web page.
To save your new Web page using the settings you designate in the previous steps, select the Save button in the Save As dialog box. If you want to preview your Web page immediately upon saving it, click the Publish button to open the Publish as Web Page dialog box. Next, select the Open Published Web Page in Browser check box before you click the Publish button or press Enter.
Note: Upon saving your worksheet data in the new Web page, Excel automatically creates a new folder with the same name as the .htm file that contains all the supporting files, including such things as the graphics files and charts among the numerical data. Thus, if you move the Web page from a local drive to a Web server of sort, you need to copy the supporting files folder as well as its Web page file to ensure that the user's browser can successfully render the entire contents of the page.
 | If you would prefer that Excel not create a separate folder with the supporting files, you can change this setting in the Web Options dialog box (opened by choosing
Tools-->Options and then clicking the Web Options button on the General tab). In the Web Options dialog box, simply remove the check mark from the Organize Supporting Files in a Folder check box on the Files tab. |
Note, too, that when you save an entire workbook containing worksheet data and charts on separate worksheets, the Internet Explorer preserves the original Excel sheet arrangement in the resultant static Web page by adding sheet tabs at the bottom of the Internet Explorer's window.
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