Excel is synonymous with spreadsheets, and for good reason. Decades after its introduction on the original Macintosh, Excel continues to be the most powerful spreadsheet app. It's not just a desktop app anymore, either. Today, you can use Excel on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and even the web. That latter version is perhaps the most interesting. Microsoft Excel Online is a free, online version of Excel that includes the functions, chart tools, and more that you'd expect from a spreadsheet.

Similar to Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel Online lets you collaborate with others in real-time, gather answers in an online survey, and crunch numbers with Excel functions. Most importantly, though, Excel Online now lets you connect your spreadsheet with other web apps to gather data and start automated workflows—and since it syncs with traditional Microsoft Excel, you can use the Online version to add automations to any spreadsheet.

If you've used Excel for years, switching to a web app may sound scary. In this guide, we'll walk you through everything you need to get your spreadsheets in the cloud, so you can gather data and collaborate—and still use Excel on your desktop. • • • • • What is Microsoft Excel Online? Microsoft Office Online gives you free, collaborative versions of Word, Excel, and more in the cloud Microsoft Excel Online—along with the rest of —are a new take on the traditional Office suite you've used for years. Typically, you'd buy a copy of Office for a few hundred dollars and install it on your computer. That's how Office has been sold for years, starting with the first version of Excel for Macintosh in 1986. Microsoft Office is so ubiquitous, its bundled apps including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are synonymous with documents, spreadsheets, and presentations—they're the standard business apps across most industries.

Microsoft Excel Online is the free version of Excel that works in your browser. It's a companion app to Excel, designed to let you view and edit your Excel spreadsheets online.

Mar 21, 2018 - Looking for a free way to read Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access. Mac word shortcut for merge cells. You will find Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote apps available for Windows, Mac OS X, iOS. Download the Microsoft Excel Viewer – Free!

And yet, it's still a full spreadsheet app that supports nearly every Excel function and includes charting and survey tools to help you gather and visualize data. It's better than Google Sheets for working with existing Excel files or sharing spreadsheets with other Excel users, and at the low cost of free, is the cheapest way to use Excel.

You can use all of Excel Online's features for free, as long as you don't have more than 5GB of files in OneDrive, Microsoft's online file storage. Or, if you still want a copy of Office installed on your computer as well, the best option today is subscribing to Office 365, which gives you the most recent versions of Office for your computer along with file sharing in OneDrive.

You can store all of your files in OneDrive, then edit any of the Office files online with Office Online. And—with the Business versions of Office 365, for now—you can use to connect your spreadsheets to your favorite apps.

Here are the Office 365 options you can choose from: • - Free: With a Microsoft account, you can use Office Online and save up to 5GB of files in OneDrive for free. • - $6.99/month: Get Office apps on your computer, and 1TB of OneDrive storage. • - $9.99/month: Get Office apps for 5 people in your family, along with 1TB of OneDrive for each user. • - $8.25/month: Get Office on your work computer, with 1TB OneDrive for Business storage with professional integrations. • - $12.50/month: Get Office on your work computer and 1TB OneDrive for Business storage, along with email and video conferencing. No matter which account you have, you can use the all of Office Online—including Excel Online. So let's dive in.