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In this chapter, you explore some of the basic, as well as the more advanced, features of Excel Online and discover how it differs from the traditional version of Excel. You also get familiar with Power BI and learn how to pull data and build some basic reports.
Comparing Excel Online and Excel
Microsoft Excel is one of the most popular data analysis tools on the planet. Using Excel, you can enter numbers into a spreadsheet and use functions to manipulate them and perform analysis. In addition to analyzing numbers, Excel is often used for tracking and managing other data, such as customers, for example. In many organizations Excel has turned into a database-type application where all types of information is stored.
Excel is what is known as a thick client in that it runs from your local computer. In Windows 10, click the Start button (the Windows icon in the lower-left corner of the screen) and browse the listed applications. When you see Excel, click the icon to fire up the program. Excel then runs on your computer. A web-based application, on the other hand, runs on a computer in a data center that you access over the Internet. If you use Outlook.com or Gmail for email or browse a web page, then you are using a web application. The way you access a web application is by using a web browser, which is a program installed on your computer.
You will find that Excel Online is still Microsoft Excel, but it does have some differences. For one thing, Excel runs on your computer while Excel Online runs out in the cloud and you access it by using your web browser.
When you create a workbook on your local computer with Excel, that workbook tra- ditionally has been stored locally on your computer. When you click the Save button to save a workbook, you are prompted for the location in which to save the file. You may save the file to a cloud-based storage location (such as SharePoint, OneDrive, or Dropbox) or to your Desktop or any other folder on your local computer. In any case, your creation is a file located in cloud-based storage or on your local computer.
When working with Excel Online, however, you do not have a local file. When you create a workbook and save it, your workbook lives on a computer in one of Micro- soft’s data centers. Because you don’t know exactly which computer in which Micro- soft data center, you can just say that the workbook lives out in the cloud. In the case of Office 365, your workbook lives within a SharePoint Online document library app.
You don’t have to be a paid subscriber to Office 365 to work with Excel Online. You can use it for personal use for free with a free Microsoft Office 365 account or Outlook.com account.
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