Editing Microsoft Office Files in Box

Creating Microsoft Files through Box and Office Online

To create a new Microsoft file in Box using Office Online:

  1. Navigate to the Box folder you want to contain the new file.
  2. Click New from the Box menu and select the type of Microsoft file you want to create.
  3. When prompted, name your file.
  4. If you do not have Box Edit installed, Box will create your file and automatically open it in Microsoft Office Online. If you do have Box Edit, your file will open in your default desktop application.

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Note
Office Online auto-saves any changes you make in your documents, so you don't need to manually save them.

 

Editing Microsoft Files through Box and Office Online

There are two ways you can edit Microsoft files in Box using the Office Online editor:

  1. through a file's context menu,
  2. through a file's preview page.

Note
Office Online supports editing for .xlsx, .pptx, and .docx files. 97 - 2003 files (.xls, .ppt, .doc) can't be edited with Office Online. As a workaround, you can use Save as to convert the file to one of the supported file types for use with Office Online editing.

The following file size limits apply when editing files with Box and Office Online:

  • PowerPoint: 1GB
  • Excel: 50MB
  • Word: Document must contain less than 100 million characters and load in less than 60 seconds

To edit a Microsoft file through its preview page:

  1. Navigate to the folder containing the Microsoft file you wish to edit.
  2. Click on your Microsoft file to open its preview page.
  3. Click on the Open button and select the option to open the file with Office Online editor.

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Any edits you make are automatically saved to Box.

Note
If the Hide Collaborators folder setting is enabled, the option to open with Office Online will be greyed out show a message Unavailable for this file. This is due to real-time co-authoring discussed below.

To edit a Microsoft file through its context menu:

  1. Navigate to the folder containing the Microsoft file you wish to edit.
  2. Hover over your Microsoft file and click the More Options drop-down menu in the file's right-hand icon list, or right-click the file.
  3. Select Open with... followed by PowerPoint Online, Word Online, or Excel Online, depending on the type of file you are editing.

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Real-Time Co-Authoring

Box for Office Online supports real-time co-authoring. Multiple people can edit a single document simultaneously, and all changes are automatically saved to Box. When multiple people are editing a document, their names appear in the upper right corner. Your collaborator's text cursor appears in a unique color, and their name will be displayed next to it.

Note
Password protected files are not supported with Box for Office Online.

 

For more information, see the original article from IT Cornell here: https://it.cornell.edu/box/editing-microsoft-office-files-box?utm_source=main.

Note: Confidential Data should not be stored in Box.  If you have a business need to store Confidential Data, please Submit a Request and we will provide you with an approved storage location.  For more information, please review the Regulated Data Chart.

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