Time to make up: Realtime collaboration comes to Excel

Office 365 licence required

Microsoft has announced a "significant" step in Excel for Office 365 users on PCs.

Users of the giant's trademark Excel spreadsheet package can now work on a document at the same time as colleagues.

It means you can jointly edit Excel documents stored on SharePoint Online, OneDrive or OneDrive for Business rather than fields or documents being locked.

In addition to being an Office 365 subscriber, you'll need to have opted in to the Fast level of Microsoft’s Office Insider program.

Rather backward for a firm rooted in the PC, co-authoring for Excel had only existed so far in Excel Online, Android, Windows Mobile and iOS for Office insiders.

Co-authoring is in the works for Excel on the Mac.

Also planned is AutoSave to Word, Excel and PowerPoint on Windows desktops, for files stored in SharePoint Online, OneDrive and OneDrive for Business.

The idea is you won't have to hit the Save button – documents will be saved for you. ®