Excel® 2007 Bible

Chapter 28. Excel and the Internet

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• Saving Excel files in HTML format

• Creating hyperlinks

• Importing data from a Web page

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Most people who use a computer are connected to the Internet. The Web has become an important way to share and gather information from myriad sources. To help you with these tasks, Excel has the capability to create files that you can use on the Internet and also to gather and process data from the Web. This chapter covers topics related to Excel and the Internet.

Understanding How Excel Uses HTML

HTML, an acronym for HyperText Markup Language, is the language of the World Wide Web. When you browse the Web, the documents that your browser retrieves and displays are usually in HTML format. An HTML file consists of text information plus special tags that describe how the text is to be formatted. The browser interprets the tags, applies the formatting, and displays the information.

Caution

In previous Excel versions, you could use HTML as a native file format. In other words, you could save a workbook in HTML format and then re-open the HTML file in Excel with no loss of functionality. You can no longer do so in Excel 2007. For example, all your formulas are converted to values. Therefore, if you save a file in HTML format using Excel 2007, make sure that you also save the file in a standard Excel format.

Understanding the Different Web Formats

When you save an Excel workbook for viewing on the Web, you have two options: ...