Uncovering Publish to Excel Services in Excel 2010

Thanks to Amy Lin for putting together this post.

In Excel 2007, we introduced the ability to publish workbooks to SharePoint. This feature enabled users to upload Excel workbooks (or specific workbook items) on to their SharePoint sites for people to view and interact with using Excel Services.

In Excel 2010, this feature has all the same functionality but the entry point has changed. For the Technical Preview/Beta users, the entry point will look different since these changes will be reflected in the final release of Excel. I will walk through the workflow of how to publish workbook items to the server with the new user experience. If you want a refresher of how to publish workbooks in Excel 2007, see our previous blog entry on: How do I publish workbooks to the server?.

In Office 2010, the Office menu has been replaced by Backstage. To learn more about the Backstage View, read these blog entries:

• Microsoft Office Backstage (Part 1 – Backstory)


• Save Some Time – Save Some Trees


• Microsoft Office Backstage (Part 3 – The Info tab)


• Evolving the Backstage View

In Backstage, the publish entry point is accessed from clicking the “Save & Send” tab on the left and then clicking the “Save to SharePoint” billboard in the middle.

Excel 2010 publish entry points

In “Save to SharePoint”, you will find the “Publish Options” button, a list of locations and the “Save As” button. The “Publish Options” button allows you to pick specific items you want to publish. The list of locations helps you save to common locations or you can click the “Save As” at the bottom of the list.

The “Publish Options” button from Backstage and in the "Save As” dialog launches the dialog below:

Excel 2010 Publish Options dialog

For all the Excel 2007 users, this dialog will seem very familiar because it is the same dialog used to specify which workbook items to publish to the server. For example, if you want to publish a specific chart and a PivotTable, select “Items in the Workbook” from the drop down and check the Chart and PivotTable you desire.  In the image below, we’ve selected “Chart 3” and “PivotTable1”.

Once you are done making your selections, click “OK”. If you clicked on “Publish Options” from Backstage, you will return back to that view. Once in Backstage, if you see a recent location you want to save to, double-click on it in the list or click “Save As” at the bottom of the locations.

The “Save As” button launches the following dialog where the default location is the location selected in the gallery. However, you can change the location of the file once you are in this dialog. The “Publish Options” button is exposed here so you can also select which workbook items to publish from this entry point.

Excel 2007 Save to SharePoint Save As Dialog

After clicking “Save”, your chart & Pivot Table can now be viewed in a browser!

Excel in the browser

The publish feature behaves the same as it did in 2007.  The new Backstage in Office 2010 gave us an opportunity to move the entry point to a more natural location.  I look forward to any feedback you have on the publishing experience. Happy publishing!