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1. Getting Started with Excel Services and Excel Web Access
Applies to: Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
Excel Services makes possible for you to view and interact with Excel workbooks (.xlsx, xslb, and .xls) in the
browser, even if you do not have Excel installed on your computer. If Excel is installed on your computer,
you can use Excel Services to publish a workbook to a Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 document library.
Then, you can share workbooks across your enterprise, and control access by using SharePoint Server
2010 permissions. Workbook data is secure, whether the data is stored with the workbook or comes from
an external source such as a database. With Excel Services, you can maintain just one copy of an
important workbook, instead of trying to manage many copies on many different computers. You can
make sure that only trusted authors can change the workbook.
If you want to use all or part of the workbook on a dashboard or other SharePoint page, you can connect
the workbook to an Excel Web Access Web Part. You can also customize the appearance and functionality
of the Excel Web Access Web Part by configuring properties such as the size of area in which to display
the workbook, which options appear on the toolbar, and the kinds of interaction that are available to the
user (such as supplying input values for parameters and downloading). In addition, you can connect the
Excel Web Access Web Part to other Web Parts, such as a Current User Web Part or a Filter Web Part.
What is Excel Services?
Excel Services is a part of SharePoint Server 2010 that extends Excel to an organization by using server
technology. It lets a user access a workbook from the browser, while the server manages security and
storage for the workbook and does any calculations that might be required. Users can navigate or sort
and filter data in the workbook in the browser.
The workbook author can designate certain cells in the source workbook as parameters, which enables
users to input values for run-time calculations. If the user’s computer has Excel installed and the user has
appropriate permissions, the user can capture and save a snapshot of the workbook in the browser, or
download the workbook and work on it in Excel.
Excel Services has three main components that work together to publish a workbook on a SharePoint site:

2. Excel Calculation Services is the "engine" of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. It loads the
workbook, calculates in full fidelity with Microsoft Excel 2010, refreshes external data, and maintains
sessions. Excel Calculation Services performs calculations on the server; users cannot access functions and
formulas directly.
Excel Web Access is a Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010Web Part. It can display all or part of an
Excel workbook, and enables interaction with the workbook in a browser by using Dynamic Hierarchical
Tag Markup Language (DHTML) and JavaScript. Because Excel Web Access is a Web Part, you can add it to
a SharePoint Web page, such as a team site or a dashboard, and then re-use on another page at any time
with no need to download an ActiveX control to your computer. In addition, you can connect the Excel
Web Access Web Part to other Web Parts, such as filters, charts, and lists.
Excel Web Services provides an application-programming interface (API) that developers can use to
build custom applications based on the Excel workbook.
Because Excel Services is a component of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, you can take advantage of
SharePoint technology features such as security and access management, server-based performance
management, and scalability.
How do Excel Services and Excel work together?
When Excel and Excel Services work together, Excel is the authoring tool and Excel Services is a reporting
tool. That is, you create a workbook in Excel, and then publish the workbook to Excel Services (or upload
©2009 Microsoft Corporation.

3. the workbook to a SharePoint Server 2010 document library). Then, from SharePoint Server 2010, you can
open the workbook in the browser or use the workbook in a Web Part.
A workbook author uses Excel to create the workbook. The author can choose from many different
Excel features, such as tables or PivotTables, charts, and filters. In addition, the author can specify named
items for selective viewing, or define parameters to accept user input from Excel Services.
The workbook author saves the workbook to a document library (or to a network or Web folder),
where it is managed and secured by a SharePoint administrator.
The workbook author and other users can create reports, Web Part Pages, and Business Intelligence
dashboards that use the workbook.
Many business users can access the workbook by viewing it in a browser. If the author created external
data connections, users can even refresh the data. Administrators can control security and access to the
workbook by using associated features in SharePoint Server 2010.
With appropriate permissions, users can copy the current state of the workbook and the results of any
interactions (such as sorting and filtering) that happened during the current session to a local computer
for further analysis in Excel.
©2009 Microsoft Corporation.

4. Publishing a workbook to a SharePoint site
To publish a workbook to SharePoint Server 2010, you must first create the workbook in Excel. You can
include many Excel features such as tables, charts, and PivotTables.
TIP Excel Services supports most Excel features, although it supports some in a slightly different way.
Connecting to external data
An Excel workbook might store all data with the workbook, or it might use data connections to access
externally stored data. When you publish a workbook to Excel Services, data storage is similar, whether
the workbook is stored in a document library, or used in a Excel Web Access Web Part. Some workbooks
in Excel Services store all the data in the workbook, and other workbooks have one or more connections
to external data sources, such as a database or OLAP cube.
A data connection includes information about how to locate, log in, query, and access the external data
source. Although connection information can be stored in the workbook, often it is stored in an Office
Data Connection (.odc) file, especially when many users share the data and you might need to update the
connection information periodically. The workbook author or an administrator can create the connection
information by using Microsoft Excel to author the connection, and then export the connection
information to an .odc file.
To make it easier to store, secure, share, and manage .odc files, an administrator can specify a SharePoint
Server 2010 Data Connection Library as a trusted location library (DCL). Then, an administrator can
manage any revisions to the connection information from a single central file, such as a change from a
test server to a production server. A refresh operation, whether on the client or server computer, gets up-
to-date changes to that connection file. You can even set up SharePoint Services and a user's client
computer to detect changes to the connection file automatically.
Excel Services and Information Rights Management
Information Rights Management (IRM) is a technology that protects information from unauthorized
access. IRM can provide protection for a document or workbook, and ensure only appropriate people
view sensitive information. For example, you can use IRM to make sure that only select members of an
executive committee can access certain financial data before the data becomes publicly available.
Windows SharePoint Services Version 3.0 or later supports IRM on a document library and all the
documents in that library (whether or not those individual documents are enabled with IRM). When you
upload a document to a document library that is enabled with IRM, the document, in effect, becomes
IRM-enabled.
Excel Services will not load an Excel workbook that has been enabled with IRM or comes from a document
library enabled with IRM.
©2009 Microsoft Corporation.