Access Live Excel Online Data in Excel (Desktop) through Connect Spreadsheets

Microsoft Excel is a widely used spreadsheet software application, primarily used for tasks related to data management, analysis, and visualization. When combined with Connect Spreadsheets by CData, you gain immediate access to Excel Online data directly within Excel, facilitating data analysis, collaboration, calculations, and more. This article shows how to connect to Excel Online in Connect Spreadsheets and access and update live Excel Online data in Excel spreadsheets.

Connect Spreadsheets is the easiest way to get all your live data into Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets - no more downloading, wrangling, and uploading files again. Just connect to your data, select the dataset you'd like to see, and import it into your spreadsheet.

Configure Excel Online Connectivity for Excel

Connectivity to Excel Online from Excel is made possible through Connect Spreadsheets. To work with Excel Online data from Excel, we start by creating and configuring a Excel Online connection.

1. Log into Connect Spreadsheets, click Connections and click Add Connection 👁 Adding a Connection
   
2. Select "Excel Online" from the Add Connection panel 👁 Selecting a data source
   
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Excel Online.

   You can connect to a workbook by providing authentication to Excel Online and then setting the following properties:

   • : Set this to the name or Id of the workbook.

     If you want to view a list of information about the available workbooks, execute a query to the Workbooks view after you authenticate.

   • : Set this to true if you are connecting to a workbook in a sandbox account. Otherwise, leave this blank to connect to a production account.

   You use the OAuth authentication standard to authenticate to Excel Online. See the Getting Started section in the help documentation for a guide. Getting Started also guides you through executing SQL to worksheets and ranges.

   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Excel Online Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions
   

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Excel Online data from Excel.

Access Live Excel Online Data in Excel

The steps below outline connecting to Connect Spreadsheets from Excel to access live Excel Online data.

1. Open Excel, create a new sheet (or open an existing one).
2. Click Insert and click Get Add-ins. (if you have already installed the Add-In, jump to step 4).
3. Search for Connect Spreadsheets and install the Add-in. 👁 Install the Add-In
   
4. Click Data and open the CData Connect Spreadsheets Add-In.
5. In the Add-In panel, click "Log in" to authenticate with your Connect Spreadsheets account 👁 Authorizing the Add-In
   
6. In the Connect Spreadsheets panel in Excel, click Import 👁 Connect Spreadsheets panel in Excel
   
7. Choose a Connection (e.g. ExcelOnline1), Table (e.g. Test_xlsx_Sheet1), and Columns to import 👁 Connect Spreadsheets panel in Excel
   
8. Optionally add Filters, Sorting, and a Limit 👁 Choosing a Connection, Table, and Columns
   
9. Click Execute to import the data and opt to overwrite the existing sheet or create a new one. 👁 Executing the Query
   

Update Excel Online Data from Excel

In addition to viewing Excel Online data in Excel, Connect Spreadsheets also lets you update and delete Excel Online data. Begin by importing data (as described above).

1. Update any cell or cells with changes you want to push to Excel Online (your changes will be in red)
2. In the Connect Spreadsheets Add-In panel, select Update
3. Optionally highlight the cell(s) you wish to update and select an update option ("Update All" or "Update Selected") 👁 Executing the update (Salesforce is shown).
   
4. Click Execute to push the updates to Excel Online

A notification will appear when the update is complete

Live Access to Excel Online Data from Spreadsheet Apps

New, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live Excel Online data from your Excel workbook. You can add more data to your workbook for calculations, aggregations, collaboration, and more.

Try Connect Spreadsheets and get real-time data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from Microsoft Excel.