How to collect data from many users

Question

In our company from time to time there are polls (like 'Name, Employee number, Will you attend the christmas party? Dinner preference?' ... ) which are typically handled via Excel sheets shared in a MS Sharepoint. The problem is that quite often one user or the other destroys the excel sheet, e.g. by sorting a single column, and in the end this workflow still causes a lot of work and trouble.

My question is if there is a safer way of letting people only edit one line in an excel sheet or automated gathering of information into excel sheets with standard tools which can be used in an intranet.

Answer 1

Have you considered using a standard SharePoint List with a form either in SharePoint or using InfoPath?

THis allows you to lock down the list, and also allows you to set the protection on the list to only allow the users access to their own data.

Once completed the data can then be exported to Excel to manage the final results.

Pro Tip: Do some research around SharePoint lists and how they work.