Excel: Why Do I Have to Sign in to Excel 2013?

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Problem: What is the deal with signing in to Office? Any why do they want my Facebook info in Excel?

Strategy: Even if you are not using Office 365 to subscribe to Office, Excel will ask you to store your Office account information in the File, Account pane. This is not some attempt to harvest e-mails so they can spam you about the next MrExcel Power Excel seminar. There are actually good things that happen when you sign in on all of your computers:

  • Recent files that you save to OneDrive will appear in the recent list of all of your computers. If you were working on a file at work and save it to the cloud, it will be available when you get home. No more forgetting the USB drive at the office.
  • Ribbon customizations are carried through to all of your computers.
  • You have a picture of yourself in the Excel window, in case you forget who you are.

  1. You are signed in to Office.

    Saving your Flickr & Facebook information allows you to Insert, Online Pictures and easily add photos that you've uploaded to the file sharing sites.