Answers to common questions about ArcGIS for Excel are provided.
If you can't connect to your ArcGIS Enterprise portal instance from ArcGIS for Excel, ensure that the ArcGIS connection specified in the ArcGIS for Excel configuration settings uses the HTTPS protocol (for example, https://sampleportal.xyz.com/portal). Specifically, confirm that the maps.arcgis.com extension, for example, https://example.maps.arcgis.com does not support HTTP.
To install ArcGIS for Excel in the native operating system (OS) language, you must first install the Microsoft Office language pack in the required language, and set that language as the default display language.
To set the default display language in Microsoft Office, do the following:
- Open a Microsoft Office program, such as Excel.
- Click the File tab and click Options.
- In the Excel Options pane, click Language.
- For the Choose Display Languages option, choose the language, and click Set as Default.
- Restart Microsoft Office.
ArcGIS for Excel uses the proxy that's defined in the Microsoft Edge browser settings. With Microsoft IIS (and other web servers), you can use a proxy PAC file to dynamically switch proxy settings when your connection changes (for example, if you move your laptop from your office network to a home-based VPN).
Proxy settings are specific to your web server. For more information, see the Microsoft documentation.
No. You can use ArcGIS for Excel as a standard user without an ArcGIS account, or you can sign in to connect with your ArcGIS organization and access additional content and tools. Learn more about using ArcGIS for Excel with and without a subscription.
Some ArcGIS for Excel functionality consumes credits. Credits are most often consumed through address geocoding or data enrichment—functions that add new columns of geographic or demographic data from Esri to a spreadsheet. For more information, see Credits.
Only geocoding using the ArcGIS World Geocoding Service (the default address option in ArcGIS for Excel, United States cities, or world cities) consumes geocoding credits. Other options, such as ZIP Codes, states, counties, and countries, are considered standard geographies and do not consume ArcGIS credits. For more information, see Credits.
ArcGIS for Excel recognizes tables and automatically adds them to Add data from the Excel wizard. If there are no tables in your worksheet, you can manually select a cell range by dragging the pointer over the desired group of cells. See the Microsoft Select cell contents in Excel article for more information.
If I use ArcGIS for Excel to make a map in Excel, what happens when I send the worksheet to my colleagues? Will they see the map?
What your colleagues see depends on whether they have ArcGIS for Excel installed and whether they are signed in to an ArcGIS account. Here's what your colleagues will see in various scenarios:
- Your colleagues are signed in to ArcGIS as members of an ArcGIS Online organization or an ArcGIS Enterprise deployment with privileges to create, analyze, and share content—The map is fully interactive and they can pan and zoom the map, add and remove layers, and work with the tools in the map. They see the layers they have access to and can perform actions that are allowed for the permissions that have been assigned to them. Changes they make to the spreadsheet are reflected in the map, and new rows are geocoded (locations changed to precise coordinates), provided that their accounts have geocoding privileges in ArcGIS.
- Your colleagues do not have an ArcGIS account—They can pan and zoom the map and view pop-up information. Only publicly shared ArcGIS layers and layers created from the Excel worksheet are visible. Map tools are not available.
When I add a layer from ArcGIS Online that contains a large number of points, are all the points added to the map at once?
No. When you add a layer to a map from ArcGIS Online, not all points are added to the map at the same time. To maximize performance, ArcGIS for Excel adds feature points in batches, based on the visible map extent. As you zoom or pan the map, points that are visible in the new extent are added to the map as you move.
You can apply clustering while working with maps in ArcGIS for Excel. When sharing a layer to ArcGIS, clustering is turned off. To share the clusters, share the layer as part of a map. See Share a map to ArcGIS for more information.
When adding data, the Add from Excel wizard attempts to recognize tables in the spreadsheet. If possible, it also recognizes existing pivot tables in the spreadsheet. If the pivot table contains an unsupported, nonnative data type or a hierarchy, or has more than one row label, the Add from Excel wizard does not recognize it. Nonnative data types are typically generated by third-party Excel plug-ins and do not directly conform to typical data types stored in a relational database management system (RDBMS).
You need to upgrade Microsoft Excel. Follow the steps in the Esri Community blog article.
While connecting to an ArcGIS Enterprise machine, an Invalid Redirect URL message is displayed in the sign-in window.
- Connect to ArcGIS Enterprise, https://<machine_name>:7443/arcgis/portaladmin.
- Sign in as an ArcGIS Enterprise administrator.
- Click Home > Security > OAuth > Update App Info.
- Paste this text in the text box: {"appId":"mapsForOffice","redirectURIs":[".arcgis.com",".esri.com"]}.
- Click Update App.
- Open Excel, access the ArcGIS tab, and connect to ArcGIS Enterprise from ArcGIS for Excel.
Yes. The ArcGIS for Excel add-in can be natively added to any MacBook without installing Windows at the same time, as in previously released versions of ArcGIS for Office. For additional support or questions, contact Esri Technical Support.
The preconfigured organization URL is not listed in the ArcGIS Connection drop-down list when accessed through Safari.
A workaround is available for this known Safari issue. See the GitHub documentation for more information. Also see Configure enterprise logins for information about ArcGIS connections.
When signing back in after clicking Cancel in the Select a certificate for authentication pane while attempting to connect to PKI ArcGIS Enterprise, the Select a certificate for authentication pane doesn't display again.
Refer to the following methods according to your operating system:
- Microsoft Excel Online—Clear the cache in your browser by only selecting and clearing the Site settings cache. Close and re-open the browser, and connect to PKI ArcGIS Enterprise from ArcGIS for Excel. The Select a certificate for authentication pane displays.
- Microsoft Excel Windows Desktop—Close all the open Excel workbooks on your
machine. Clear the Excel cache, and open a command prompt as an admin. Run this command: rmdir /s /q
"%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Wef"
.
Open Excel and connect to PKI ArcGIS Enterprisefrom ArcGIS for Excel. The Select a certificate for authentication pane displays.
- Microsoft Excel macOS Desktop—Close all the open Excel workbooks on your
machine. Clear the Excel cache.
Open Excel and connect to PKI ArcGIS Enterprisefrom ArcGIS for Excel. The Select a certificate for authentication pane displays.
To clear the Excel cache on macOS, follow the instruction in the Microsoft Clear the Office cache article.