Files.com integrates with Office 365 to collaborate on Microsoft Office spreadsheets, documents, and presentations directly in your Files.com folders with your colleagues in real time!

Launching Microsoft Office for Web

Files.com integrates with Microsoft Office using the Web Application Open Platform Interface (WOPI) protocol. WOPI is used by Microsoft 365 applications to view and edit files that are stored in a cloud service. Files.com uses encrypted connections to transfer files to and from Microsoft's secure infrastructure. When you close the editor, your content is removed from Microsoft 365 for the web's servers, but frequently edited documents may be stored within an encrypted, hashed cache to speed up subsequent edits.

You must have read permissions to the Files.com file you want to preview or view as read-only within the Office editor. To launch the Office editor in edit mode, you must have full permissions to the file.

Working With Documents

Microsoft Office Online will open your document in a new browser tab. Once open, you can work with your document using the Microsoft Office tools and menu items that you are already familiar with.

You need at least Full Permission on the folder containing the document to edit it through Microsoft Office Online. If you do not have at least Full Permission, then you will be able to open the document through Microsoft Office Online, but not edit it.

Working In Share Links

If a site administrator has enabled the setting to Use Office Integration for Full Access Share Links, visitors can use Office for the Web to make changes to Office documents stored within the Share Link. Your site's Online Editor Integration must be configured to use this editor, and the share link must allow Full access, including download, upload, modify, and delete.

Saving Your Work

You do not need save the document while you are editing, since Microsoft Office for Web saves your work automatically. You will see in the search bar above the application menu your document status as Saved to Files.com. You will also see the application name, the document name, and at the right edge of the search bar, the user name under which you are currently logged in.

Collaborating Online

When multiple Files.com users can access and work on the same document, you can see who else is working on the document when you are and can see their changes in real time. Likewise, they can see your changes in real time. For multi-page documents, Microsoft Office for Web also provides an indication of which page each collaborator is on, so that you can avoid stepping on each others' changes. When your collaborator moves from one page to another, you will immediately see their icon move to let you know.

When co-authoring a document, all of the people editing the document must be using the same system for editing. For example, if a document is stored in a remote mount of a SharePoint server, you cannot simultaneously edit that document through Microsoft Office for the Web and through SharePoint online. Each service will be working off of its own cached copy of the data, with unpredictable results.

Coauthoring Logging

When more than one person is editing a file at the same time, Files.com history logs will only show the first person who opened the editing session as if they made all the changes. Even if other users make edits during that session, the history logs will still show the original editor as the one who did everything. Once the session is over, there's no way to see in Files.com which user made which specific edits.

Enable Track Changes to determine which collaborators are making specific edits. When you turn on Track Changes in Microsoft Office for the web, your changes are treated as suggestions so that others can see exactly what was edited. Teams review and discuss changes before accepting them into the final version. Each edit is labeled with the editor’s name and a timestamp, making it easy to follow who did what.

File size limitations

While your Files.com site can handle files up to 5TB in size, this particular integration is subject to the file size limitations required by Microsoft. Visit Microsoft Office documentation for their latest limits on file sizes and sessions with Microsoft Office for web.