How to Make an Excel File Shared in SharePoint

If you're looking for a way to share your Excel file with others without having to go through the hassle of opening it in the Excel desktop app, then this method might be just what you need. This technique was originally discovered by my customer, Mr. Callum Fraser, and I'll walk you through how he found it interesting.

The problem that Mr. Fraser faced is a common one - his colleagues needed to access data from an Excel file stored in SharePoint Online, but the process of opening the file in the desktop app and then using Power BI to get the data was too complicated for them. So, he set out to find a better way.

Navigating the Excel Data Stored in SharePoint Online

The second method involves getting the Excel file path directly from SharePoint without having to open the file in the Excel desktop app. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Go to your SharePoint site and navigate to the document library where your Excel file is stored.

2. Select the Excel file you want to share.

3. Right-click on the file and select 'Copy link.'

4. Open Power BI Desktop and create a new report or edit an existing one.

5. In the 'Get Data' section, click on 'File' and then select 'Excel File.'

6. Paste the link you copied earlier into the 'File Path' field.

You can now select tables for sheets and start building your reports in Power BI Desktop.

The same process works for saving Excel files to SharePoint 2013 or SharePoint 2010 document libraries as well. Just make sure to remove the query part from the file path before pasting it into Power BI Desktop, or you'll get an error message.

In this article, we discussed how to directly save an Excel File into a SharePoint Online document library in SharePoint online 2016. This method allows you to use the Power Query process without having to open your file in the Excel desktop app. By following these simple steps, you can easily share your Excel files with others and start building reports in Power BI Desktop.

Additional Resources

If you're looking for more information on how to work with SharePoint, check out our other tutorials:

* Create Bulk Users in Office 365 (from CSV File)

* How to add Link to a Document library in SharePoint Online/2013/2016

* Microsoft Flow Example: Email notification after approval from a SharePoint list

* Document Co-Authoring in SharePoint Online

* Power bi shared dataset permissions management

* Create PowerApps App for SharePoint List

You can also check out our other articles on how to work with Excel and Power BI:

* How to Create a Canvas app from SharePoint List in Power Apps

* How to create and use Power BI Bookmarks

* How to export excel table to SharePoint List

* Import excel spreadsheet into SharePoint list 2013

* Create a Power BI report from Excel using Power BI Desktop

* Create a canvas app from Excel in Power Apps (Step by Step tutorial)

How to make an excel file shared in sharepoint