Can excel be edited on Dropbox without having a Microsoft account?

[cffcff]

I have an excel file I want to share for collaboration with a friend who has a free dropbox account, but no Microsoft Office subscription.

Can she edit it in excel (not google sheets) without having the subscription? Does it require her to add the folder (which I share) to her dropbox account or can she edit the excel by just using a link?

[Jay]

Hi @cffcff, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

There shouldn't be any issues when editing in Excel via the Dropbox site while on a Basic account, by following these steps.

If you need any further assistance, please let me know!

[cffcff]

Thank you!

What happens if the two of us are working in the file simultaneously - is the file constantly updated in both windows or will there be error messages?

What happens if I instead open the same file on my desktop (from the copy stored locally) and work in the desktop version of excel?

Are all functions in the destop excel available in the Dropbox web version?

[Jay]

The web version of Excel does have some differences to the normal desktop version, however, most normal functionality should be there.

When a file is updated and saved, the Dropbox desktop application will sync the changes to the site, and vice versa. If you're both working on the desktop app, the Dropbox Badge would be able to inform the other user if you're on the file, to avoid conflicted copies. 

[cffcff]

The relative with whom I am trying to cooperate on an excel document (she has a free Dropbox account) cannot make simple changes such as adding a row (which I can do when using the web version). Is this because she has a free version of Dropbox or some other reason?

[cffcff]

Hi,
I am afraid it turned out to be several issues which have all now resulted in a fail and I am forced to move the project to the google sphere instead. This is really sad and frustrating and surprising that Dropbox does not offer the feature to collaborate with "everyone" on the document - I have so far avoided the google sphere for my documents, but now having to migrate one project there means I loose the advantage of only having to deal with one system - something I have so far liked with having (several) dropbox subscriptions.
First issue: My teammate (a relative who is less IT proficient) couldn't edit and felt stupid (something I am very unhappy about). In the end, after having spent far too much time on troubleshooting, we realized this is because she is using a tablet with a screen larger than 10" - when that is the case, I now know it is not possible to edit Excel documents with a subscription.

We then tried editing using Google sheets instead (despite me prefering Excel) and this worked... for a day ... then Google closed down this possibility.

So now only the excel option remains and this requires a paid excel subscription if one has a tablet with a screen over 10"

If I instead move the project to the google sphere - I can collaborate with my teammate/relative without her having to purchase any additional subscription (I am already paying quite a lot for my own two dropbox subscriptions). However, it is far more cumbersome for me - as I would have preferred staying in the Microsoft sphere. I am therefore looking at other options.

[Nancy]

Thanks for the update, @cffcff, and I’m really sorry to hear this didn’t quite work out for you.

If there’s something else you may need help with, please don’t hesitate to ping us on the forum.