This step-by-step article explains how to share a Microsoft Excel workbook with other users. If you want several users to work in the same Excel workbook simultaneously, you can save the workbook as a shared workbook. Users can then enter data, insert rows and columns, add and change formulas, and change formatting.
If you're in an application that gives you a link that you can click on, the spinning circle usually means that Windows is busy; it's doing something... it might very well be loading IE9. It's not until IE9 has finished loading that it becomes visible and takes over the screen.
Things have been fine from Feb to until Nov this year, after which point I noticed the mouse cursor showing the busy revolving circle all the time, performance was reduced and the computer sounded like it was constantly working. I traced the problem to the Microsoft office Click-to-run process running with high CPU (5+%) and memory (50+mb). If I restarted the click-to-run service the use of computer resources dropped to minimal and the problems described in the first paragraph disappeared.