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The following tutorial will allow you to import live data from the Internet into an Excel spreadsheet, so that as the data on the Web site is updated, your spreadsheet will reflect those changes each time you open it. The example used in this tutorial will show you how to import data from buoys placed by the National Oceanographic Data Center to record water temperatures in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
- In the drop-down menu in Excel, click Data » Import External Data » New Web Query. This will display the Web Query window, which will open to the Web page you have set as Internet Explorer's default homepage.
- Use this window as you would any Internet browser to find the page and table from which you wish to import data. For the purposes of this tutorial, type (or copy and paste) the following URL into the "Address" bar: http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/dsdt/cwtg/egof.html
- Click Go or press Enter to display the Web page.
- A yellow arrow will appear next to every table on the page that can be imported into Excel. Click on the arrow next to the large table displaying water temperatures. The yellow arrow should become a green checkmark.
- Click on the Import button at the bottom of the Web Query window.
- A small window will pop up, asking you to specify a location for the data. The default location is the existing worksheet. Click OK.
- The data should now be displayed in your worksheet. To refresh or update the data, click any cell within the table and choose Data from the drop-down menu, then select Refresh Data.
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