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How to Review an Excel Document
Who is this article for?Review Authors reviewing excel documents in the classic interface.
Please Review Administrators can define user types for document reviewing.
Please Review streamlines the process of reviewing Excel documents by providing collaborative tools for adding comments, suggesting changes, and tracking modifications in a controlled environment, enhancing teamwork and review accuracy. Its specialized interface ensures efficient handling of Excel files, fostering clear communication and seamless collaboration among reviewers.
Reviewing Excel
To make a comment simply click on the cell you wish to comment upon. The comment window will then open.
Proposed changes are supported on both formulae and text. Accepted proposed changes will, by default, update the Excel file on download unless the original spreadsheet is 2003 (.xls) format. In this instance accepted changes to formulae cells are shown in the downloaded document as comments.
No attempt is made to validate proposed changes to formulae. If the revised formula is accepted in Please Review and is not correctly formed the downloaded Excel file will flag it as being invalid when opened.
Note: If a formula is updated the spreadsheet will not recalculate in the browser.
- Special rules apply to cells with reference formulae (i.e. where a cell formula has been created by dragging or copying the formula from another cell).
- Hidden columns and rows will be displayed but the contents will be replaced with the word ‘hidden’.
- Excel review does not support zones or other such advanced options such as document comparison.
- If the enter key is used when entering data in a blank cell in the review, the data will have the ‘Wrap Text’ enabled automatically when the document is round tripped back into Excel.
- If appending data within the review to a cell that has data that is not 'Wrap Text' enabled and the enter key is used, the data will display on one line (inheriting the original format of the data) after round tripping.
Excel Limitations
Due to Excel's inherent complexity and HTML limitations, there are some issues to be aware of:
| No. | Limitation Description |
|---|---|
| 1 |
If a formula is changed in Please Review it will only be recalculated in the downloaded Excel file once the Excel enable editing button (in the top yellow banner shown for all downloaded documents in Office) has been clicked. Otherwise, the spreadsheet will still show old values based on the changed formulae. |
| 2 | In the Please Review comment window any value that uses symbols (e.g., $) will only display the value. If making a proposed change, there is no need to enter the symbol while in the comments window as once round tripped it will appear with the new value. |
| 3 | If a user enters a date into a blank cell in Please Review, when round tripped into Excel, the format of this value will be ‘General’ and not a date format as it would if entered Excel directly. Numbers also have a text value and appear left aligned. |
| 4 | Please Review does not display charts or similar, the worksheet displays a message that there are items which cannot be displayed. Users can, however, enter data in the cells where the chart would be which, when round tripped, would be covered up by the chart. |
| 5 | When making a proposed change to a date, the format used is the default date format from the server. |
| 6 | The handling of text wrapping in Excel is quite different to HTML. Because of this there may be instances where text which is not wrapped in Excel is shown as wrapped when in the review and vice versa. |
| 7 | The tooltips for formulae will only display the original formula uploaded. If a user proposes a change to this and the change is accepted, the tooltip will not show the new value. |
| 8 | Within Excel, cells can display a list of values for selection which restricts the user to only being able to select from the list. This rule is not upheld in the review and the user can enter any data which, when round tripped, will be accepted. |
| 9 |
Formatted text effects cannot be viewed in the Please Review display. However, the formatted effects are retained in the downloaded ‘round tripped’ spreadsheet. This affects the following formatting options: |
| 10 | Comments that are in the original Excel document before being uploaded into Please Review are not displayed within the review. |
| 11 |
Percentages are shown within cells: for example, 10.0% in the formula bar is displayed as 10%, whilst in the comment window it is displayed as 0.1. If a proposed change is made to the figure, it should be made using the 0.1 format to be round tripped correctly, otherwise it will be downloaded as an Excel comment. |
| 12 | Pivot tables are not always drawn correctly. |