Incorporating a Spreadsheet into Outlook

[Daniel Thompson]

Hi there,

My boss wants me to incorporate a spreadsheet into outlook so that everyone can access it and add/modify items as required.

I thought this would be an easy(ish) task, but I struggling a little, wondered if anyone had any ideas?

I thought it might be possible to add it as a start page for one of the outlook sections? We have Outlook XP/Vista installed on our machines, and we are running a Windows 2003 SBS network with Exchange, we also have sharepoint running as well as MS CRM 3.0

As the details that are going to be added to the spreadsheet are related to our clients, i thought it might also be possible to customise MS CRM to include this information, but for the time being i think we're just going to have a spreadsheet. I know i could just create a shared spreadsheet, but we heavily use Outlook, so it would be easier for our network users to have access to it from outlook.

Any ideas are much appreciated!

Thank you in advance,

Danny

 

[Roady [MVP]]

The real easy answer here is; Outlook is no Excel.
What method of input and output do you require?
Where do you store things and where do updates need to go?

Without an Excel server we are talking about a single file here which has
limitations in the way that people can access and update it. If that is ok
to you, you can create a hyperlink to the file in the Outlook Bar or deploy
a custom folder Home Page which holds links to relevant files and
information.

If all you need is a table structure and no Excel functionality, you can
also consider a database solution with a web interface which you can access
as a folder Home Page. Note that there are limitations in the dynamic
(scripted) content that Outlook can display on a folder Home Page due to
security issues.

 

[Daniel Thompson]

Thank you for your quick response, I'm not sure on the specifics of the information that is going to be inside this spreadsheet, however, knowing my boss, it probably isn't anything that couldn't be applied to another medium.

I think with sharepoint i can import a spreadsheet and access that through a web interface, i will give it a go after my lunch, and let you know how it goes