Remember Shared Workbooks? Everyone opened an Excel workbook at the same time, made their changes and then none of them saved? Well, it’s back... Microsoft has announced today that it is enabling co-authoring in Excel on Windows desktops for Office Insiders Fast. This allows you to know who else is working with you in a spreadsheet, see where they’re working and view changes automatically within seconds. It is still being tested, so Microsoft encourages early adopters to continue using feedback channels to improve the experience before making it available more broadly. Co-authoring is already available in Excel Online, Excel on Android, too. Now that we have to see.

For those of you who don’t know, co-authoring in Excel on Windows desktops allows you to see where others are editing at the same time as you in a spreadsheet. It does need AutoSave switched on for the features to work fully – and that’s not something modellers necessarily want to do. You may need to think about this before exploring this functionality fully.

Starting with Excel Build 8017.1000 for Excel on Windows desktop, you can co-author with others and no longer get locked out of a shared file that’s stored in SharePoint Online, OneDrive or OneDrive for Business. If you don’t already have it, co-authoring in Excel on Windows desktops is rolling out for Office 365 subscribers in Office Insider Fast.

You can find out more about co-authoring here. We'll also be rambling on about it further in our May newsletter (too late for April, sorry!).