Using Excel WebApp In The Forum

[Ken Puls]

At the last MVP summit we were shown some great examples of the new Excel WebApp. After seeing that I immediately went and updated a few pages on my website to make them as interactive as possible.

Since this is a help forum, I think this could be a very valuable tool to help demonstrate things to our question askers as well.

One challenge with the WebApp though, is that runs in an iFrame. Due to security, I didn't really want to allow just any iFrame on my site, so I've created some BB Code tags specific to the Microsoft webapp. These tags will allow you to embed a file right into the forum web pages.

Here's how they work...


Assume you have uploaded your file to your Windows Live SkyDrive account.

• Make sure the file is in a shared folder.
• Navigate in SkyDrive to the file, but don't open it.
• Hold your mouse over the file name, and a bar should pop up.
• Navigate to More --> Share --> Embed

​

• Copy the code from the embed window.

For this example, we'll assume the code is as follows:

<iframe src="http://r.office.microsoft.com/r/rlidExcelEmbed?su=-8493146133887032856&Fi=SD8A224897002E61E8!258&AllowInteractivity=False" width="402" height="346" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

What we're going to do is copy everything from between the ?su- and the &Allow. In other words:

8493146133887032856&Fi=SD8A224897002E61E8!258

Now we'll insert it between [EmbedFile] [/EmbedFile] tags, like this:

[EmbedFile]8493146133887032856&Fi=SD8A224897002E61E8!258[/EmbedFile]

Once you submit your post, it will look like this!
[EmbedFile]8493146133887032856&Fi=SD8A224897002E61E8!258[/EmbedFile]

I have also added a set of [EmbedItem] [/EmbedFile] tags if you'd like to show just a specific item from your file. (A defined range, pivot table or chart, for example.)

The method to get your iFrame code is the same as above. The code below comes from a file that has a chart named "Chart 1":

<iframe src="http://r.office.microsoft.com/r/rlidExcelEmbed?su=-8493146133887032856&Fi=SD8A224897002E61E8!265&AllowInteractivity=False" width="402" height="346" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

With tags it would look like this:
[EmbedItem=Chart 1]8493146133887032856&Fi=SD8A224897002E61E8!265[/EmbedItem]

And when used would yield:
[EmbedItem=Chart 1]8493146133887032856&Fi=SD8A224897002E61E8!265[/EmbedItem]

I will be writing up some articles on how to use Windows Live SkyDrive and the Excel WebApp over the next while. Hopefully you can find this useful!

 

[Juan Pablo Gonzalez]

Very cool stuff Ken.

 

[XL-Dennis]

Nice Ken, very nice

The following URL point to the MSFT's pages about using WebApps and SkyDrive: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/w...pps-in-windows-live-skydrive-HA101231889.aspx

If I understand it correctly also older versions of the Office suite can communicate with WebApps.

 

[Ken Puls]

Thanks Dennis!

Re the webapp, we actually were discussing that over here.