Brands and services may come and go, but Microsoft Excel still remains the go-to software solution for unnumbered business organizations worldwide.

Apart from class, Microsoft’s biggest USP over the years has been the ease of access. Excel is used extensively to collect data, analyze risks, plan projects, generate quotes, predict financial outcomes, and generate quotes. But when there is a need of using Excel collaboratively or protecting the data efficiently, that’s the point when things can get out of hands. All of a sudden, the Excel sheet is crashing, the data is corrupt or damaged and you are left baffled.

If all this happens, you may want to consider turning your Excel spreadsheet into a native app. 

Preparing your spreadsheet before turning it into an app

Below are a few measures that should be taken into consideration before submitting your spreadsheet to the Open as App platform:

• Your data must be cleared
• Your list must have headings at the top of the column
• Any cells outside the list area will not be considered by the wizard
• Reference to external files cannot be accessed
• Format cells accordingly to have their values displayed
• Avoid pivot tables
• Ensure you are using supported formulas
• Always specify all the arguments in a formula

When the aforementioned rules, the next step is to create your own database-driven web application hassle-free.

Designing application

Once the spreadsheet is prepared, the next step is to upload it to the Open as App platform. After this step, you will get a recommendation for your app, wherein, you can pick a design theme of your choice or you can even manually design your app in the way you want to. All this is possible due to the App designer functionality.

What is an App designer?

An app designer lets you configure each item in your application individually to correspond to your brand identity and also configures how cell function.

Getting into the app designer, here are the options/functions which you will encounter,

• Preview: Allows you to preview how your app will look
• Rearrange elements: Allows you to rearrange or group elements together and can add new pages to grant space to the extra elements
• Add cell, chart, or list: With this function, you can add new content like cells, charts, or lists
• Change theme: This function helps you to change the whole theme of your app using different layouts
• Add print functionality: Generate a PDF file through your app and send it via email.

With the help of App Designer and the above mentioned steps, you can convert excel to web application. Not only creating an app, but you can also stylize your app both visually and functionally to get terrific end results and fine-tune it to what extent users can interact with the different contents.

Once you have designed and published your app, courtesy the way Open as App functions, the connection is two-way the sheet and the app. Now both sheet and app are always updated in both ways in the same time frame.

Conclusion: App creation is way too beyond how to make a spreadsheet. There are many platforms over the internet including m-Power and others, but the platform isn’t what matters, instead, how you create a database-driven web application is what matters. Go on and turn your next spreadsheet to database.