Beginning SharePoint® 2007: Building Team Solutions with MOSS 2007

11.1. Excel Services Overview

Excel Services allows you to publish spreadsheets and workbooks to a server in a controlled environment, where users can access calculated data and reports directly from the browser, but where you can set controls to limit the data users can see and safeguard confidential elements, such as formulas or connection details. This means users don't have to have the Excel application on their computer to view, create, and author spreadsheets.

Users can also view a snapshot of the file in Excel, which protects source file and formulas but limits the user to a read-only view of the calculated data. Excel Services also lets users interact with pivot table reports; reports have filtering and sorting functions so users can generate a view to meet their requirements. For example, rather than creating individual reports for each project manager on the progress of your individual projects, you can create a single project status report, where users can filter results based on time, project manager, and project name. This means you can serve a greater audience with a single report, while still providing a useful tool to project managers so they can generate reports of their own.

This section reviews the various features of Excel Services including a special template called the Report Center that contains many of the elements available in SharePoint to create an interactive reporting environment.

11.1.1. The Report Center

SharePoint 2007 has a built-in site template ...