Editing Business Document Files

Edit common productivity-suite files directly in your Files.com site with an Online Editor Integration. You can co-author with other users on your site, and collaborate with share link recipients without giving them an account.

Selecting the Online Editor for Your Site

Site administrators choose which Online Editor Integration to enable for business-document files: the Files.com editor, Microsoft Office for Web, or no editing. The Files.com editor is enabled by default, and we recommend leaving it as the editor for your site.

Required Permissions

You need Full Permission for the folder containing the document you want to edit. If you do not have Full Permission, then you will be able to open the document for viewing, but not edit it.

File Locking

Files.com uses file locks to protect business document files that are open for editing. When a file is already open for editing, other systems that try to open it are informed the file is in use.

When you use Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint for Desktop to open a file through a mapped drive letter with Desktop App, the system checks whether the file is locked. If someone else is already editing the document in the same way, you are notified and prompted to open the file as read-only instead.

These locks also prevent users from starting a co-authoring session in an online editor while the file is open in a desktop editor, and vice versa. The locking works with both online editor options: the Files.com editor and Microsoft Office for Web.

This feature uses file locks specific to Files.com. Desktop App and the online editors support these locks. Other clients, such as WinSCP, Mountain Duck, and FileZilla, do not.

Saving Changes

When you use an online editor to make changes (including co-editing with others), the working file is temporarily copied to the editor's storage system.

As you edit the document, changes are uploaded back to your site every 2 to 5 minutes. When the editor is closed, any remaining changes are uploaded. There is a small delay before those changes are reflected in your site.

After the changes have finished uploading, the last modified time of the file in your site will reflect that recent activity, and you can preview or download the most recent version from your site.

Supported File Types

Each of the supported Online Editor Integration options lets you edit .docx, .xlsx, or .pptx files without any special conversion. The tables below list other formats that can be edited, and some that require a conversion first.

File Types Requiring Conversion

Some legacy productivity file formats, such as .doc, .xls, and .ppt, require conversion before they can be edited. Conversion can cause unexpected formatting changes when the file is opened in your online editor.

When a converted document cannot be stored in the original format, such as a .xls file being converted to .xlsx, the converted file is added to the folder alongside the original. The original is not changed.

A site administrator can configure any of these file types, such as CSV and RTF, to be treated as native text extensions with the site's Text-only File Extensions for Preview setting, which allows the designated file types to be previewed without converting them.

Files in formats that require conversion cannot be viewed or edited by Share Link visitors. To collaborate on a document in one of these formats, first edit it in the File Manager and then include the converted file in the Share Link.

Files.com Editor Supported Formats

The Files.com editor supports the formats below. See Files.com Online Editor for details.

Microsoft Office for Web Supported Formats

Microsoft Office for Web supports the formats below.