Editing documents collaboratively

Excel, PowerPoint and Word files can be edited collaboratively online. To do so, simply click on the file in the Drive interface.

Please refer to the OnlyOffice user documentation for information on how to use these editors.

Known limitations of OnlyOffice

OnlyOffice is compatible with most features of Microsoft Office. The most hindering limitations are listed below.

• Excel
  • Excel spreadsheets do not have the pull-down list (validation) option. If this feature is important for your work, we recommend either validating the document offline or editing it offline. 
• Word
  • Users working simultaneously on large Word documents can see the page content move as content is being added/removed in pages preceding the page being viewed. Several simple workarounds are possible:
    • cut large files into smaller files for the main editing phase of the work
    • strategically intersperse page breaks throughout the document

Guidelines

When editing a Word file, start by checking the "Collaboration" menu in OnlyOffice. The "Co-Editing Mode" is usually better in Fast mode. The "Display Mode" is usually better in Markup mode. Note the "Track Changes" option too; with the option activated, changes by each editor are color coded.

With versioning of files, it is better practice not to use filenames which include the date and the initials of the person having edited the file. These are workarounds for people who do not have access to a file versioning system.

Avoid sending files by email; point users to files in a collab instead. Every time you send a file by email, it is a potential fork in the evolution of that file, that is, it creates yet another copy of the file which might evolve into a separate branch which then needs to be merged back. Sending files also fills up quota of Inboxes.