MS Office

What you are talking about is called a "linked" database. The tables are kept in a database on the server; perhaps other objects are too. Each user has a client database which consists mainly of links to the tables in the server database (alt File/Get to construct the links). How this would apply in Excel I am not sure. I am at a loss to tell you anything about licensing.

running stuff over the network is always slower than running it locally. unless you have expensive fast file server already. then might not be so bad, but usually, it is so bad that most folks don't do it without a compelling reason, like no hard disk space on the clients.
how to do it depends on the version of Office. why don't you search under 'network install' and your office version at support.microsoft.com. has the other disadvantage of taking everybody down if it goes. if you want to do this because think it is easier to admin, i think other ways of easing admin would be more effective and practical. check out office zero admin kit

Yes you can use Office across a network. As said before you will need a decent server but more importantly you will need a Server licence for Office along with licences for each user that need to access it. If you install a 5 user WORD licence for example and a sixth signs on, he will not be able to use WORD until someone logs out as Office will monitor the simultaneous connections.
Sounds like your tryig to save some money on an office suite, if so MS Office is not your answer. A simple search will give you a bunch of Office suite options that can be used relatively cheap or in some cases free. These are often not QUITE as robust as Office and have simler formatting tools but often they are more than ample for documents and letters.

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