One of the most interesting developments in the Excel 2007 release was the Excel Services module that made it possible to load spreadsheets and run calculations on a central server. This feature theoretically makes it possible to impose much better controls on who accesses and alters important data.
But practical applications are still a little thin on the ground. To help users along, boffins at the Microsoft Office Developer Center have published a raft of technical guides about Excel Services and how it can work in tandem with Microsoft's SharePoint Server web portal system.
The company's Microsoft Excel blog recently highlighted a new guide, Tips for Using SharePoint Server 2007 with Excel Services that deal with common pitfalls experienced by Excel users. The advice covers:
- Making an Excel workbook compatible with Excel Services
- Configuring external data connections
- Configuring Excel Services to work with Kerberos
- Saving an Excel workbook to a SharePoint document library programmatically
- Avoiding exceptions in a UDF when accessing the caller's identity
- Handling dimension issues for UDFs that return arrays
- Calling 32-bit native DLLs from UDFs on 64-Bit operating systems
- Quick tips for common Excel Services issues.
The article explains that some features and functions within will not work within Excel Services - including VBA and shared workbooks. In some of these cases, a workbook will fail to load in Excel Services. There are also complications surrounding connections to external data sources, which can be avoided by using the Excel Data Connection Wizard to configure links when the workbook is opened on the server.
Source:- accountingweb.co.uk/
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