The spreadsheets we offer are created in Excel (because that’s the tool I use most). I realize not everyone has Excel on their computer or phone. So this article is about how to get and use Excel for free. Microsoft has an online version of Excel that works for any operating system. You just have to be able to get online. Let me walk you through how to do that.
Signing up
You’re going to want to start by going to this website. If you already have a Microsoft account you can log in, if you don’t you can sign up for free.
If you look at the plans and pricing, you won’t see a free option. I guess they don’t want to advertise it. But it is right there in bold, so I don’t know.
If you click on “Sign up for free” you will see this screen to enter your email.
Then create a password for your new account.
It will then ask for your country and a birthdate. The birthdate is required whether you want this to be a child account or not.
You will have to verify your email by entering the code they send you. I also uncheck the box about getting more emails from Microsoft.
I had to prove I wasn’t a robot, and then I end up at a screen like this.
It looks like Microsoft gives you 5GB of cloud space right now. If you click on the “Excel” symbol on the left side, you will be taken to a new page where you can select to “Upload” our budget file from your computer. (If you haven’t already downloaded our free budgeting spreadsheet, you can do that here.)
Once you upload our Excel file you will be taken directly to a new tab where you can edit it and fill it out. All of your changes are saved right away. That’s always a nice feature. I can’t tell you how many times I have had to redo work because I forgot to save. It’s a life trial that young kids may never need to go through.
If you close out of the tab for editing the document you can see the file by clicking on “My Content” on the left side of the screen.
A lot of free Microsoft stuff
This gives you much more than just Excel for free. You get Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneDrive, Teams, and OneNote along with free cloud storage for the files. It’s a pretty nice deal. There’s a mobile app too for android or Apple that lets you edit and do all of the same things on your phone. I don’t get paid anything for having you sign up. I just want people to be aware that you can use our Excel spreadsheets for free on any system as long as you can get online.
Hopefully that helps you get started! I know you can open our Excel files with software from other places, but I haven’t tested it out in any of them. I think the formulas all work in Google Sheets, but the formatting is off. I have heard of an issue when using Numbers on a Mac where the total income doesn’t work. I have tested it a lot more in Excel, so hopefully it helps to know that you can use Excel for free!
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