The point of setting up an Excel workbook to be “shared,” even if you are the only person using it, is that it unlocks features designed for collaboration—most importantly change tracking.

Direct answer

When a workbook is shared, Excel can track changes (who changed what and when), maintain a change history, and make it easier to review or roll back edits. Even if only one person uses the file, this is helpful for auditing your own work, documenting edits over time, and protecting yourself from accidental mistakes.

Key reasons (even for one user)

  • Track changes to your own work
    • You can see which cells were changed, when, and what the previous values were.
* This is useful in graded courses, compliance environments, or any situation where you must show how numbers evolved.
  • Built‑in “version history” feel
    • Shared/online workbooks (e.g., on OneDrive/SharePoint) keep a version history so you can restore earlier versions if something breaks.
* That safety net is useful even if no one else ever touches the file.
  • Audit and documentation purposes
    • In finance, HR, or reporting work, having a record of changes is often required for audits or sign‑offs.
* A shared/track‑changes setup helps show that your process is controlled and traceable.
  • Preparation for future collaboration
    • You might be the only user today, but the file may later be handed off to a colleague or team.
* Having it already configured for sharing and tracking makes that transition smoother.

How this shows up in questions/tests

Many certification and training questions about this feature are actually testing one specific idea:

“Why would you set up a workbook to be shared if you are the only one using it?”
The expected answer in those multiple‑choice contexts is usually: “You can track changes.”

TL;DR: You’d set up a workbook as shared, even if you’re the only user, primarily so you can track and review your own changes over time, which gives you auditability, version safety, and future‑proofing for collaboration.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.