About getting design help for spreadsheets

When you view and interact with a spreadsheet in your Web browser, you are working with a component that was created in another program called a design program. In a design program such as Microsoft FrontPage or data access pages in Microsoft Access, you can add the data that you want in the spreadsheet, add the spreadsheet to a Web page you're designing, and publish the Web page to a Web server. Help about designing a spreadsheet is available from within the design program.

To learn more about designing a spreadsheet, first choose a design program to work in. You can start in any of the supported design programs, and then later work on the same spreadsheet in a different design program if you need different design features.

If you have a Microsoft Office XP license and the Microsoft Office Web Components installed, you can create and modify spreadsheets in several programs. You can create the spreadsheet in one program, and later use a different program to modify the spreadsheet or the Web page that it's on.

The choice of which design program you use depends on the amount of design or administrative work you want to do on the Web page itself, the type of data you want to use, and your own familiarity with different design programs.

Microsoft Excel If you want to try different formulas, adjust references, import data from other sources, or design an interactive chart to reflect the data in your spreadsheet, Excel is an excellent design environment to use to create spreadsheets.

You can format the spreadsheet and make adjustments to its size and appearance in another design program. If any of your users have Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4.01, be sure to use Microsoft FrontPage to modify spreadsheets that were published from Excel. Excel publishes spreadsheets to Web pages with full support for Internet Explorer 4.01 and later, and FrontPage maintains this support. If you modify a Web page that was published from Excel by using data access page Design view in Microsoft Access, however, users might need to install Internet Explorer 5 or later before they can use your Web page. Excel is available in Microsoft Office XP.

Microsoft FrontPage If you want to create a Web page or modify spreadsheets published from Excel, FrontPage is the recommended design program. You can create spreadsheets on Web pages in FrontPage in addition to modifying spreadsheets that were designed in other programs. Use the extensive Web page editing and administrative features of FrontPage to add controls, graphics, themes, and more to your Web page, and then make the page part of your Web site. FrontPage is available in Microsoft Office XP.

Microsoft Access If you want to create Web pages that operate on and display data from databases, and your users have Internet Explorer 5 or later, use data access page Design view in Access to create spreadsheets. You can use Access to establish a connection from an Access database to the Web page, and then you can use formulas in the spreadsheet to return values from the database to the spreadsheet. Access is available in Microsoft Office XP.

Microsoft Visual Basic If you need a more comprehensive programming environment than the scripting capabilities provided by Excel, FrontPage, and Access, you can design spreadsheets in Visual Basic. Use Visual Basic when you want to include a spreadsheet or calculation engine in a custom solution. Users can view and interact with spreadsheets on the Visual Basic forms in your programs. Instead of a browser, your form becomes the run-time environment, and your program can automate many spreadsheet or calculation features.

When you are working in a design program, you can get help in the following ways:

You can use scripts and programs to automate spreadsheets, or you can include spreadsheets in run-time programs other than Web browsers ù programs that you develop in a programming environment such as Microsoft Visual Basic.

Writing scripts Microsoft Office programs provide the Microsoft Script Editor to help you write scripts. For example, you can use the Script Editor in Microsoft FrontPage to customize a spreadsheet. For information about running the Script Editor, see Help in your Office design program. In the Script Editor, you can display additional Help about using its features and writing scripts.

Object model Help For help developing a program or script to work with a spreadsheet, you can display information about the object model, properties, and methods specific to spreadsheets. This object model Help is installed whenever you install the Microsoft Office Web Components, of which the Spreadsheet Component is one. Depending on the design program you're using, you can access this Help in either of two ways: