Share and collaboratively edit Microsoft Office files in Amazon WorkDocs

Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint files are some of the most commonly uploaded and shared files in Amazon WorkDocs. In the past, you had to use Microsoft Office desktop applications to create or edit Office documents and then upload and share the latest versions in WorkDocs. Now, the Open with Office Online feature lets you edit Office files in Amazon WorkDocs from your web browser.

This gives you the following benefits:

• Experience Office Online directly from WorkDocs — Open and edit the latest Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files using Office Online from the WorkDocs web application. All changes are automatically tracked and saved back to WorkDocs.
• Edit content collaboratively — Editing capabilities in the Office Online applications are available to you, so you have the familiar experience of both Office and WorkDocs. You don’t need to spend time learning a new experience when collaborating with your co-workers.
• Share and collaborate in a single place — You can now share files and collaborate without leaving WorkDocs. Your co-workers can review your files and provide feedback using the commenting features in WorkDocs. You can then refer to these comments in WorkDocs while editing using Office Online.

You do not need to install a desktop application in order to use Office Online with WorkDocs. You can be more productive by working from anywhere on any device using a web browser, making collaboration more effective, and efficient. Editing and collaborating is also more secure, because you aren’t downloading files to insecure or non-compliant desktops or devices.

To use the feature you need to enable it in the WorkDocs Admin Control Panel , and you need to log in using an active Microsoft Office 365 work or school subscription. For more information, see Microsoft Office Licensing.

Let’s walk thru how to enable and use Open with Office Online

1. First, site administrators need to enable the feature. This can be done from the admin control panel.

2. Once the feature is enabled for the site, your users will see an Edit button they can click to edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files.

3. Your users can also join an existing editing session, by choosing Live Edit

4. Your users will need to sign in to Office Online using an Office 365 subscription, if they are prompted to do so. This step enables Office Online to check if the user has a valid subscription to use the feature. For more information about Office 365 subscription, see Microsoft Office Licensing.

Now that your users are logged in, they can edit and co-author documents in WorkDocs using Office Online. Office Online displays the names of all collaborators who are editing the Office file and tracks their changes in real time. All edits are automatically saved to WorkDocs. Files are also automatically locked by WorkDocs during the edit session and unlocked once the session has ended. The session ends when all collaborators have exited the session.

Summary

The Open with Office Online feature lets you edit and co-author Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files using Office Online, from within the WorkDocs Web application. All changes you make to files edited in Office Online are automatically saved to WorkDocs.

Site administrators must enable editing using Office Online for all users. You and other users must log in to Office Online using your Office 365 subscription to use this feature.

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