Microsoft Excel

as a Web Page Creation Tool

Module W41c

Audience and Objectives | About this document...

Contents
  • Overview
  • Getting Ready in Excel
  • Step 1: Getting Started
  • Step 2: To Create or Not to Create?
  • Step 3: 
    • Setting up an Independent Web Page, or
    • Putting a Spreadsheet into an Existing Web Page
  • Step 4: Finishing
  • Step 5: How'd We Do?
  • Odds and Ends
Wherever you see this separator line in the document, clicking on it will return you to the Contents.

Overview
You probably wouldn't think of Excel as a Web page authoring tool, but spreadsheets are good for a number of things, such as...
  • Doing calculations;
  • Creating series of dates;
  • Organizing information using rows and columns of text and numbers;
  • Creating graphs of many kinds based on numbers.
With these and other capabilities, together with the ability to easily convert a spreadsheet into a Web page, Excel is actually a good tool for putting several kinds of information on the Web.

This module is designed to help you take Excel spreadsheets and put them quickly and effectively on the Web.

Getting Ready in Excel

If you use Excel to create data for the Web, you'll do some of the work in Excel itself, and you may want to use a Web editor to touch up the results. While you're using Excel, you'll want to do all the things that Excel is best at. These include:
  • All calculations;
  • Sorting rows into alphabetical or numeric order;
  • Creating graphs based on the numbers;
  • Moving rows and columns around.
Note that once an Excel spreadsheet becomes a Web page, it's static: changing a number in a column of figures will no longer update the total at the bottom.

There are some things you can do in either Excel or a Web editor; many of them are actually easier to do in the Web editor...

  • Hyperlinks: Excel does hyperlinks just fine, so long as you want to link an entire cell. If you want to hyperlink only part of a cell, or if you want several different links in a cell, it's better to use your Web page editor.
  • Text and background colors: either Excel or a Web page editor can give colors to your text and background in various cells. However, Excel currently doesn't let you use a graphic image as the background of a cell, so you'd have to do that in your Web editor.
You can insert graphics into Excel spreadsheets, but they don't transfer automatically to the Web page. You have to handle them separately.


Step 1: Getting Started

File...Save As HTMLOnce your spreadsheet is ready, starting the Web conversion process is easy: just use the menu choice, File...Save As HTML. This brings you the Internet Assistant Wizard, which will take you through the rest of the conversion process. 
Internet Assistant Wizard: Step 1 Step 1 in the Wizard is to Select the range of cells to translate into HTML. 
  • If you click Add, Excel lets you select the cells using your mouse. 
  • Several ranges of cells can be added (or removed), and they will appear on the Web in the order you see them here. 
    • What if your spreadsheet has several worksheets? You can select ranges from several different worksheets; they will all be placed on one Web page.
    • In the illustration (left) Range 

      • "Team Eval"!$A$1:$I$12 refers to a worksheet called Team Eval. 
    • The highlighted range,

      • "$A$1:$G$1"
      is on the current worksheet (it's the one you would see on the screen) so its range name isn't shown.
  • The "Move" arrows let you change the positions of the ranges relative to one another. This is determine their position on the Web page.


Step 2: To Create or Not to Create?

Step 2There are two ways you might want to place a spreadsheet on the Web: 
  1. By itself, as a stand-alone Web page; or
  2. As part of another Web page - perhaps as a chart illustrating something the larger Web page discusses.
This step, you tell Excel which way you want to do it.

Which way is easier? Having Excel create an independent Web page is somewhat easier, because embedding a spreadsheet in another page requires you to edit the existing page and insert an HTML tag to show Excel where you want it. This isn't really difficult - it just adds another step. The Excel wizard tells you what the tag should look like, and we'll illustrate it here, too.
 

 

Step 3: Setting up an Independent Web Page

If your spreadsheet will stand alone on its own, as an independent Web page:

If you decided to insert the spreadsheet into an existing Web page, skip to the next section.

Step 3:
This step lets you get your page organized around the spreadsheet. 
  1. Title appears on the Window Titlebar, on search engine lists, but not on the page itself. 
  2. Header is put at the top of the Web page, with the <H1> HTML tag to make it BIG!
  3. Description below header appears between the header and the spreadsheet itself. You can leave it blank or put in a fair-sized paragraph, depending on how much or how little you want to explain about the spreadsheet.
  4. Insert a horizontal line before the converted data: This will put the HTML <HR> tag it. Not really necessary, because the spreadsheet itself has plenty of girdlines already.
  5. Insert a horizontal line after the converted data: also an <HR> tag, and also unnecesary. The only reason you might want one is if you edit the Web page after Excel is finished with it and turn off the gridlines.
  6. Last Update on and By are inserted automatically, but you can edit the lines if you need to.

    7. Email can be left blank, but it's a good idea to put in your contact email address.


Step 3: Putting a Spreadsheet into an Existing Web Page

Step 3 wizard for existing files

If you decided to put your spreadsheet into an existing Web page:

The wizard will tell you to insert a special comment line in the HTML file you choose. This comment tells Excel exactly where you want the spreadsheet to appear:
<!--##Table##-->
(If you like, you can copy the line from here and paste it into your Web page as shown below...

To insert the comment using a WYSIWYG editor: You can't just type it into the page! You must type it as HTML code. One way to do that using Netscape Composer is to use the menu Insert...HTML Tag. A small text window pops up, and you type in the code <!--##Table##-->. When you're done, click OK (pressing the <Enter> key just starts a new line). This way, you'll enter actual HTML code.

The HTML file must exist, and of course, you have to get the name and directory right. Use the Browse button if you have any doubts; otherwise, you'll get this:

The tag <!--##Table##--> must be exactly like this, otherwise you will get this message:

When you finish Step 4, Excel gives you this dumb message!

Of course the file exists! You wouldn't be doing this if it didn't, so just click Yes or press the <Enter> key.
 


Step 4: Finishing
Finishing up:
  1. Which code page: this should usually be left at the default for your computer.
  2. How do you want to save the finished HTML Web page? Usually as an HTML file, unless you're already organizing your site with FrontPage.
  3. File path: where do you want your Web page saved, and with what name?
 Step 4:

Step 5: How'd We Do?

Now it's time to go to the browser and see how it came out! As often happens, you may want to touch up some details with a Web page editor, such as...
  • Graphic background for the page, and possibly for some of the individual cells;
  • Turning off the gridlines in the spreadsheet, which is now an HTML table;
  • Linking sprecific references within the cells;
  • Adding graphics to liven things up;
  • Generally making the page look more inviting and less plain.

Odds and Ends

Areas that need more attention: Links, graphics, and Excel comments.
 

 About this document...

Audience:

 This is for people who know how to use Microsoft Excel and want to put Excel spreadsheets and their features on theWeb.

Objectives:

 When you successfully complete this lesson, you will be able to...
  • Save Excel spreadsheets as independent Web pages;
  • Insert Excel spreadsheets into existing Web pages;
  • Save multiple Excel worksheets and charts on a Web page.

Module W41c:

 This document is part of a modular instruction series in Computer Information Systems. For more information, see the overview or the list of modules in this series, W - World Wide Web. This document has been used in the following classes: 

Author:

 Laurence J. Krieg

Institution:
Department of Computer Information Systems, Washtenaw Community College
History: Original: 29 Nov 1998
Last modification: Monday, 31-Aug-2009 11:48:06 EDT
Copyright: Copyright © 1999, Laurence J. Krieg.
Instructors: You may point to this file in your Web-based materials.
Students: you may make a copy for your personal use.
All other uses: contact the author, Laurence J. Krieg for permission. Email krieg@ieee.org