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Help using Excel for Windows on Android while on vacation

T

Tom Seeley

Lurker
Total newbie here, with regard to using Android on a tablet, so please bear with me

I usually use a Dell desktop running Windows 10 and I do a lot of personal finance number crunching with Excel 2013. I never save any of my personal files to any version of a cloud. But if I did want to be able to use my Android tablet to work on an Excel spreadsheet while I’m on vacation, what steps would I need to follow before leaving home, to do that? I’m not asking—yet—for you to explain how to do those steps; at the moment, all I want to consider is what I’d need to do.

Like: after opening the Excel file on my hard drive, I’d need to save it in Windows to some sort of cloud I could also access from my Android tablet while out of town.

I don’t know enough to even recognize if any version of a cloud is available at all on my tablet, but I’d be amazed if one isn’t there somewhere!

Then what? There seems to be a Google-branded Excel-wannabe app I can install and use on my tablet. If I put my Excel file somewhere where the tablet could find it, would that app be what I’d use to work with the Excel file on the tablet? Would that app understand at all how to do anything with an Excel spreadsheet?

The tablet is an AT&T-branded model Trek 2 HD running Android 6.0.1 (which Android sometimes also calls Marshmallow, for some reason I can’t begin to fathom). It’s the one and only device I own that runs Android and I have no experience at all with it.
 
Look into installing Microsoft's OneDrive app on your tablet. OneDrive is already an integral part of MS Office so you'll just be adding your tablet into your OneDrive service.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.skydrive&hl=en
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OneDrive
https://support.office.com/en-us/ar...h-Office-b1c976de-ef52-4d53-950f-d48f2c6427df

... and in case you might be thinking of upgrading your current MS Office 2013, you might want to think of Office 365 instead:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_365
http://www.howtogeek.com/136343/whats-the-difference-between-office-365-and-office-2013/
 
Ok. Got it. Problem is, I have a built in hostility to opening a Microsoft account, for purely personal and nearly totally irrational reasons! :mad: My bad! If that's the only way I could possibly do what I want to do (not need to do, just want to do) I'll keep thinking about it, but off the top of my head I'm inclined to keep trying to find alternatives.

But seriously, I do thank you for the suggestion. It's a good one, notwithstanding my irrational hostility to almost anything Gates et al have done, despite having used almost nothing but Windows for 20 years (or maybe because of using it!).

MC and HNY!
 
No argument from me about your hostility to Microsoft, it's hardly irrational considering its history. But if anything the Satya Microsoft is evolving into something different than the Gates/Ballmer Microsoft. (Leaving aside the arguments that Microsoft is either being forced to change to remain competitive or wants to change... whatever.)

So NOT wanting to put yourself into a OneDrive account is understandable. The problem being online storage services are often maintained by some corporate overlord. Google Drive is of course a Google thing, Dropbox was a very consumer oriented service years ago but is continuously moving more and more to corporate/SOHO markets. There are others of course but maybe you might want to move to your own file hosting solution. Take a look at NextCloud. It's free to use and Open Source so corporate influences are minimal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nextcloud
https://nextcloud.com/
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nextcloud.client&hl=en
If you don't want to run a Nextcloud server out of your home, you can run an online server (pay-for so not free) through a service like DigitalOcean:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DigitalOcean
https://www.digitalocean.com/


One last thing, as it sounds like you're pretty heavily invested in Windows/MS Office the following might not even be worth reading further for you but have you given any thought to switching to LibreOffice? It's free, Open Source, actively developed, stable, and not encumbered by patent restrictions. MS Office relies on a by-design vendor lock-in aspect. By implementing closed-source, patent-protected, proprietary file formats, migrating out of the MS Office environment can be tough. If you're a power user and use a lot of MS scripting along with embedded MS Office docs into other MS Office docs that makes it even more difficult. But if most of your files are just plain doc/docx or xls/xlsx files you shouldn't have to worry too much about converting anything as LibreOffice will probably open them as is. While LibreOffice can open/edit/save files in MS Office file formats, its defaults are instead based on the Open Document Format, a better long-term solution for file/document archiving. ODF is also better for file sharing -- instead of forcing others to buy a MS product to open a file, it's just a matter of using Google Docs or downloading one of several free office suite products. (although I still want to endorse LibreOffice)
LibreOffice
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibreOffice
https://www.libreoffice.org/
ODF
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument
LibreOffice vs MS Office
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Feature_Comparison:_LibreOffice_-_Microsoft_Office
https://lifehacker.com/battle-of-the-office-suites-microsoft-office-and-libre-1147940828
 
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