Display Excel Worksheet (worksheet itself, not just data) in LabVIEW

[DavidLuprek]

     My company has multiple Excel spreadsheets used to track quality data, productivity, delivery, etc. The current method is printing the blank spreadsheets, and filling in and charting the information by hand. These sheets are then hung on a board and reviewed daily.

     I would like to create shared Excel files that allow various people to enter their data and use a LabVIEW VI to display the spreadsheets exactly as they appear in Excel (along with some other information).

     Multiple users without LabVIEW knowledge or access would need the ability to format the spreadsheets, which is why I would prefer to simply display the spreadsheets (almost as images) rather than import the Excel data into LabVIEW and build tables and charts with it there.

     Has anyone ever done this, or is it not possible? Thank you in advance for your reply.

[GerdW · Accepted solution]

Hi David,

you might use some ActiveX (or DotNet?) components to display an Excel worksheet on a LabVIEW frontpanel…

I would need to look for an appropriate tool for myself so cannot advise a specific one.

[Hooovahh]

Yup ActiveX is the way to go.  The free OWC that Microsoft puts out for Excel might work as well.  It is a simplified version of Excel used for webpages.  Even the full blown version of Excel will work fine too

[thoult]

This is definitely doable with a bit of ActiveX or .NET. The ActiveX Type Library Microsoft Internet Controls contains an object called ShellBrowserWindow which can be used to display almost anything that IE can within a control. There are similar .NET approaches too.

A quick check of the site finds an example of exactly what you're looking for here: http://www.ni.com/example/28756/en/ 

[DavidLuprek]

Thank you all for your very helpful, thoughtful, and polite replies! Much appreciated...