In Excel: save the file to OneDrive or SharePoint, then press Share in the top-right corner and enter the people or copy the link — that is what enables real co-authoring.
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Save the workbook to OneDrive, OneDrive for Business or SharePoint — co-authoring does not work on a local or network drive.
Click Share in the top-right corner of the Excel window.
Enter names or email addresses, or use Copy Link and set who the link works for.
Choose "Can edit" or "Can view"; use Link settings to set an expiry date or a password where your plan allows it.
Use File ▸ Info ▸ Version History to review and roll back changes.
To stop sharing, open the Share pane ▸ Manage Access and remove people or the link.
What this does
Modern sharing and the old Share Workbook feature are two different things, and picking the wrong one is the usual source of pain. Co-authoring requires the file to live on OneDrive, OneDrive for Business or SharePoint; then several people edit the same .xlsx at once and see each other's cursors. The legacy "Share Workbook (Legacy)" command is a pre-cloud mechanism that merges separate copies, blocks tables, conditional formatting and PivotTable edits, and is hidden from the ribbon by default for good reason. If you cannot use cloud storage, the honest alternatives are sending copies and merging them yourself, or moving the data into a system built for concurrent writes. Before you run it on a workbook other people depend on, try it on a copy or a few rows first. Undo only reaches back through the current session, so a quick trial run is the cheapest way to see exactly what will change before the file is saved and shared. The difference between a quick fix and a sheet you can trust is the extra minute you spend validating “share an excel spreadsheet”. Start on a copy or a tiny sample, keep the affected sheet visible, and compare the result with the outcome you expected before you touch the real workbook. When this is a ribbon command, the selection matters more than the button: confirm the range, apply the command, then spot-check the output before saving. The point is a layout choice that keeps the sheet readable and sortable, but the practical win is that someone else can open the file and understand what happened without asking you.
A worked example
Save budget.xlsx to OneDrive, then click Share ▸ enter two colleagues' addresses ▸ set the permission to "Can edit" ▸ Send. All three of you can type at once, and coloured cursors show who is where. Use File ▸ Info ▸ Version History to see and restore earlier states. If instead you email the .xlsx as an attachment, you have created three files that will diverge within a day. The version-control problem — five copies of budget_final_v3_JS.xlsx — is solved entirely by where the file is stored, and that is the one decision people skip. If this is something you do often, add the command to the Quick Access Toolbar (right-click it on the ribbon and choose Add to Quick Access Toolbar) or learn its shortcut, so next time it is one click instead of a hunt through the menus.
In Google Sheets
This is a command rather than a formula, so there is no syntax to carry over. Google Sheets arranges its commands in menus across the top instead of a ribbon, names some of them differently and does not have every Excel command — look for the equivalent in the Sheets menus or its help before assuming the steps match. The aim was to get you unstuck fast and leave you a little more capable than a copy-paste would. The answer is at the top and the detail above shows why it holds — so the next time a colleague asks, you can answer without reaching for search. The short version of “share an excel spreadsheet”: the answer is at the top of this page, and the sections above explain why each step matters, so a variation of the problem does not stump you. Try it once on a copy of a real file and the steps stick far better than re-reading them.
Common mistakes
- Emailing the file as an attachment and then trying to reconcile four edited copies.
- Enabling the legacy Share Workbook feature, which silently blocks tables, conditional formatting and many PivotTable operations.
- Storing the file on a network share and expecting co-authoring, which needs OneDrive or SharePoint.
- Granting "Can edit" to a link that anyone can forward, when the data is confidential.
- Sharing a macro-enabled .xlsm and expecting co-authoring — macro workbooks do not support it.
Frequently asked questions
How do I share an Excel file?
Save it to OneDrive or SharePoint, then click Share in the top-right corner and add people or copy a link. That is what enables simultaneous editing.
Can several people edit at once?
Yes, if the file is on OneDrive, OneDrive for Business or SharePoint and is a normal .xlsx. Macro-enabled workbooks and files on local or network drives do not support co-authoring.
What is Share Workbook (Legacy)?
The pre-cloud mechanism for merging separate copies. It disables tables, conditional formatting and much PivotTable editing, and Microsoft hides it by default. Use OneDrive co-authoring instead.
How do I stop sharing?
Open the Share pane and choose Manage Access, then remove individual people or delete the sharing link.
Other ways people ask this
On the way here you may have searched this as “how to share excel spreadsheet”, “how do you share an excel spreadsheet”, “share excel spreadsheet” and “how do i share an excel spreadsheet” — it is all the same task, and this page is the single, complete answer to it.
Why do people search for this in so many different ways?
Because the same task has many names. “how to share excel spreadsheet”, “how do you share an excel spreadsheet”, “share excel spreadsheet” all point at the one operation explained on this page, which is why they all lead here.