Website Excel Spreadsheet for Non-Excel Users   

Is there a way to load an Excel spreadsheet onto a website in such a way that 
people who don't have Excel (or at least an up-to-date version of it) will be 
able to open and use the file? Specifically, what I am thinking about is to 
create an order form blank for an on-line business, that would receive the 
order information and download it into my ordering system. 
Thanks.  Mark S.

date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 13:20:12 -0700   author:   Mark Schreiber

Re: Website Excel Spreadsheet for Non-Excel Users   

Hi Mark,

Just a couple of Questions before I reel a few things off, are you looking
too have an Order From on your Website where when a visitor places an order,
it updates your ordering system at home?

If this is correct, then instead of you going through the tough process of
trying to get an excell replicar on your website, you should look more into
setting up a html & dynamic page on your site, that when the information is
entered by your customers it would insert it into a mysql database, you
could then set up a ODBC connection on the pc that has the ordering system
and have the excell document to pull the corresponding information from the
database.

I've had to quickly type this up, so if ive gone over your head or you need
any more help. Plesde dont hesitiate to reply to this message.

Kind Regards,

Greg Barnett
Web Manager

"Mark Schreiber"  wrote in message 
news:549FC744-6E9D-45C4-A473-3344872547F2@microsoft.com...
> Is there a way to load an Excel spreadsheet onto a website in such a way 
> that
> people who don't have Excel (or at least an up-to-date version of it) will 
> be
> able to open and use the file? Specifically, what I am thinking about is 
> to
> create an order form blank for an on-line business, that would receive the
> order information and download it into my ordering system.
> Thanks.  Mark S.

date: Sun, 2 Sep 2007 16:33:11 +0100   author:   Greg Barnett

Re: Website Excel Spreadsheet for Non-Excel Users   

Hi, Greg.  Thanks for responding.  Yes, your first idea is what I am looking 
for, an on-line order form on a website that updates the internal ordering 
system at home.  And, from your comments, I am already in over my head since 
I don't yet know how to set up a website, but am working in that direction.  
Any recommendations on where to begin?

Mark Schreiber

"Greg Barnett" wrote:

> Hi Mark,
> 
> Just a couple of Questions before I reel a few things off, are you looking
> too have an Order From on your Website where when a visitor places an order,
> it updates your ordering system at home?
> 
> If this is correct, then instead of you going through the tough process of
> trying to get an excell replicar on your website, you should look more into
> setting up a html & dynamic page on your site, that when the information is
> entered by your customers it would insert it into a mysql database, you
> could then set up a ODBC connection on the pc that has the ordering system
> and have the excell document to pull the corresponding information from the
> database.
> 
> I've had to quickly type this up, so if ive gone over your head or you need
> any more help. Plesde dont hesitiate to reply to this message.
> 
> Kind Regards,
> 
> Greg Barnett
> Web Manager
> 
> "Mark Schreiber"  wrote in message 
> news:549FC744-6E9D-45C4-A473-3344872547F2@microsoft.com...
> > Is there a way to load an Excel spreadsheet onto a website in such a way 
> > that
> > people who don't have Excel (or at least an up-to-date version of it) will 
> > be
> > able to open and use the file? Specifically, what I am thinking about is 
> > to
> > create an order form blank for an on-line business, that would receive the
> > order information and download it into my ordering system.
> > Thanks.  Mark S. 
>

date: Tue, 4 Sep 2007 09:16:01 -0700   author:   Mark Schreiber

Re: Website Excel Spreadsheet for Non-Excel Users   

Hi Mark,

No Problems, basically if your looking to design your own website, you will 
need to learn HTML as a start. This will allow you too put together the 
basic structure of a website, although if its for a company and you want too 
keep a reputation and online presence I would really push you too get a 
professionaly designed website and tell them about the ordering system idea. 
But, if you dont want too go down that route I can help you along your way!

I would say too you, to forget about the ordering system at this moment, as 
that will take some advanced server side coding (PHP). Start with some HTML 
tutorials, you may find it easier to work with Tables too start with, 
although I would highly recommend you to learn XHTML & CSS coding, this is 
the best way too design a website too the latest of Standards. 
www.caribbeanwarehouse.co.uk is one website that I created, and constantly 
develop on a daily basis, theres a reason why i've mentioned this, because I 
developed the exact same system that for them that you are looking for, but 
in a different scenario.

For you ordering system, you will need to learn the basics of setting up an 
ODBC connection on your home pc (that has the billing system) that will 
allow you to remotely connect to an online database (hosted on a server, 
shared hosting account etc, although  your hosting provider will have too 
allow for remote access to databases). This will then allow you to populate 
excell documents on your home pc with data from the online database, you may 
now be thinking well what will come from the database? how will I get info 
into the database? well this will all come from your website, the excell 
document you originally wanted in a page on your site, would actually be a 
basic form. The form would post to a page, and the page would populate the 
database with the data that was inserted into the form the page before. 
Hopefully you can see where I am coming from with this.

Feel free to contact me at Greg@web3cdesign.com and we can go into more 
discussion on the basic fundamentals of web design. But, for now I have to 
get back too work. Looking forward to your Response.

Greg




"Mark Schreiber"  wrote in message 
news:A6366AA0-15C7-438B-B2F2-A0EC50BECAB0@microsoft.com...
> Hi, Greg.  Thanks for responding.  Yes, your first idea is what I am 
> looking
> for, an on-line order form on a website that updates the internal ordering
> system at home.  And, from your comments, I am already in over my head 
> since
> I don't yet know how to set up a website, but am working in that 
> direction.
> Any recommendations on where to begin?
>
> Mark Schreiber
>
> "Greg Barnett" wrote:
>
>> Hi Mark,
>>
>> Just a couple of Questions before I reel a few things off, are you 
>> looking
>> too have an Order From on your Website where when a visitor places an 
>> order,
>> it updates your ordering system at home?
>>
>> If this is correct, then instead of you going through the tough process 
>> of
>> trying to get an excell replicar on your website, you should look more 
>> into
>> setting up a html & dynamic page on your site, that when the information 
>> is
>> entered by your customers it would insert it into a mysql database, you
>> could then set up a ODBC connection on the pc that has the ordering 
>> system
>> and have the excell document to pull the corresponding information from 
>> the
>> database.
>>
>> I've had to quickly type this up, so if ive gone over your head or you 
>> need
>> any more help. Plesde dont hesitiate to reply to this message.
>>
>> Kind Regards,
>>
>> Greg Barnett
>> Web Manager
>>
>> "Mark Schreiber"  wrote in 
>> message
>> news:549FC744-6E9D-45C4-A473-3344872547F2@microsoft.com...
>> > Is there a way to load an Excel spreadsheet onto a website in such a 
>> > way
>> > that
>> > people who don't have Excel (or at least an up-to-date version of it) 
>> > will
>> > be
>> > able to open and use the file? Specifically, what I am thinking about 
>> > is
>> > to
>> > create an order form blank for an on-line business, that would receive 
>> > the
>> > order information and download it into my ordering system.
>> > Thanks.  Mark S.
>>

date: Fri, 7 Sep 2007 11:11:23 +0100   author:   Greg Barnett