Forum Discussion

cffcff's avatar
cffcff
Helpful | Level 6
2 years ago

Can excel be edited on Dropbox without having a Microsoft account?

I have an excel file I want to share for collaboration with a friend who has a free dropbox account, but no Microsoft Office subscription. Can she edit it in excel (not google sheets) without havin...
edit
FAQ
Microsoft Office
Web
Jay's avatar
Jay
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
2 years ago

Hi cffcff, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

 

There shouldn't be any issues when editing in Excel via the Dropbox site while on a Basic account, by following these steps.

 

If you need any further assistance, please let me know!

cffcff's avatar
cffcff
Helpful | Level 6
2 years ago

Thank you!

What happens if the two of us are working in the file simultaneously - is the file constantly updated in both windows or will there be error messages?

What happens if I instead open the same file on my desktop (from the copy stored locally) and work in the desktop version of excel?

Are all functions in the destop excel available in the Dropbox web version?

  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    2 years ago

    The web version of Excel does have some differences to the normal desktop version, however, most normal functionality should be there.

     

    When a file is updated and saved, the Dropbox desktop application will sync the changes to the site, and vice versa. If you're both working on the desktop app, the Dropbox Badge would be able to inform the other user if you're on the file, to avoid conflicted copies. 

    • cffcff's avatar
      cffcff
      Helpful | Level 6
      2 years ago

      The relative with whom I am trying to cooperate on an excel document (she has a free Dropbox account) cannot make simple changes such as adding a row (which I can do when using the web version). Is this because she has a free version of Dropbox or some other reason?

About Delete, edit, and organize

Solve issues with deleting, editing, and organizing files and folders in your Dropbox account with support from the Dropbox Community.

The Dropbox Community team is active from Monday to Friday. We try to respond to you as soon as we can, usually within 2 hours.

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X, Facebook or Instagram.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!